


A New End

by sareenmomo



Series: The End [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Gender or Sex Swap, Hopeful Ending, Master of Death Harry Potter, Obsessive Tom Riddle, Sarcastic Harry, Time Travel, but then he becomes possessive, roller coaster ride of emotions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 08:40:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 47,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7838056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sareenmomo/pseuds/sareenmomo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the help from Death itself Harry went back in time to stop Voldemort. But what he didnt realized that Death had more ulterior motive. It not only send him back in time but also turned him into a seventeen years old teenage girl. With a female body in raging hormones and an incredibly handsome teenage Dark Lord, how will Harry handle the situation? Also what is the reason for Death to send her back in time?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The light that never comes

**Author's Note:**

> The title of this chapter is from the song 'The light that never comes' by Linkin Park.

Harry stood there in silence, waiting for the curse to come and take his life away once and for all. He feels so empty at the moment staring at his enemy, waiting for death to come. After watching Snape's memory he have felt nothing but numb. After all how often anyone has to walk calmly towards their death.  
He watched as Voldemort's lip moved as he pronounced the curse,'AVADA KEDVARA'  
The curse hit squarely on his chest sending him flying backward. He landed harshly on his back. After that everything went blank.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
After a short while Harry started regain his consciousness. He felt a little dizzy at first but regain his composure. He was lying on the floor. He suddenly remembered what happened. "The killing curse hit me .I should be dead. But why am I not? Where am I anyway?" Harry looked around to know where he was. But he saw nothing but white light.  
He stood up from where he was lying. He realized he was he was wearing different cloths from before. Before in the Forest he had a black hoody and blue jeans on. Now he wore a white loose cotton shirt and white pants.  
'Is this heaven?', He said out loud.  
'Not really', said a grim voice from behind Harry. Harry turned on his hills to see a black hooded figure stood behind him. The figure it was almost ten feet tall and had black clock covering its whole body. It held a scythe in its ghostly pale hand.  
'W..who are you?' Harry stammered at it. He wasn't scared of the figure. No, he was more overwhelmed by it then scared. Nothing really scared Harry anymore. After all he just walked toward his death in cold blood.  
And not to mention he died. So what else could possibly happen to him.  
He might die? Yeah …..right.  
'Not who but what' said the hooded figure. 'I am your humble servant. As you are my one and only Master. I am the most powerful being of this universe. I have and always will be. I will never be born and never die.  
As I am the Death itself.'  
Harry just stood there dumbstruck unable to master any word. So the Death kept on going, 'You, Harry James  
Potter are the only wizard who have ever manage to collect the three hallows. For that reason you become the Master of Death.'  
'So everything in the book is real?' Harry asked finally able to master his voice.  
'More or less. Yes.' Death replied in a same monotone grim like voice.  
'So, what now? Why am I here?' Harry asked looking around.  
'Now is time for you decide .' Death replied. 'What you wish to do with your power to control me. You can go back in time, go forward in time, bring people from the dead, resurrect them, even kill them.'  
'I don't want to kill anyone. Resurrect maybe but never kill.' Harry said out loud. Suddenly an idea came to him.  
"If I can go back in time maybe I can_"  
'Death , when you say go back in time _ ' he paused for a brief second then continued '_can I change it as well? I mean can I change the past occurrences?' he asked .  
Death took a little time before answering his question, 'Yes, but with a great sacrifice.' 'What kind of sacrifice?' Harry asked Death.  
'If you want go back in time when Tom Riddle became Voldemort then you must know that it will require some big sacrifice. In the process you may even lose yourself. The question is are you ready to sacrifice or do anything to stop him?' Death said  
Harry thought for a brief second. He realized what Death meant. If he go back in time there is a possibility that he will never meet his friends again. But he has already came to turn with it when he went to the Forest. He realize if he can kill Voldemort in the countless innocent life will be spared. His parents, Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, Fred, Cedric they will live. So without a second thought he made his decision.  
'I will make anything to stop Voldemort.' He said confidently after drawing in a long breath. 'Are you absolutely sure?' Death asked him 'Positive.' Harry replied boldly.  
'Very well Harry James Potter, the Master of Death I shall do as you wish. I shall take back in time when Voldemort was still in school. You shall have all the memories of this time. But to adjust you in that time I shall create a false identity for you and also lend you my power.' By saying this Death stretched its hands.  
Harry felt a gush of wind blow. Black feather blew out of nowhere. First it was only a few but soon more feather came rushing toward Harry and engulf into darkness.  
Harry screamed as he felt himself falling into dark abyss.


	2. This Night Aren't For The Fainter Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The name of the chapter is adopted from the song 'Wicked one' by Dorothy.  
> Disclaimer: I dont own anything other then this weird plot.

Harry slowly came to consciousness. He tried to move but it felt like he had been struck with thousands of Cruciatus curses at once. Every part of Harry's body hurt like hell. Especially his chest hurt the most.  
Harry was lying on his back. He tried to understand where he was without opening his eyes. He could hear faint sounds coming from distance. He tried to open his eyes. At first he couldn't see anything but darkness. Soon his vision became clear and he could see everything beside him.  
Harry was lying inside a dark ally. He could see black worn out bricks of the buildings beside him. A stench of dead rat was coming from somewhere.  
Harry tried to get up from his position and get out of this dark smelly ally. His body was becoming less painful by the time.  
He stumbled his way out of the ally and found himself onto the footpath of Bond Street of London city. He saw women walking and shopping in padded shouldered high waist tops and line skirts that came down to their knees. The men were in suspenders and fuller cut pants or simply in sweater.  
Harry realized that he was probably in 1940. People walked past him on the busy road some men even looked behind to look at him again. He realized he was probably causing attention toward him. But the attention went a bit weird when a man winked at him while passing.  
"Okay, did he just wink at me?"  
It took Harry by surprise but he didn't think too much about it. He walked ahead on the footpath taking in his surroundings. While walking past a showroom he glanced at the glass of the shop for a split second and looked away to go further but he stopped on mid step. His front foot still in the air to take step forward, he whirled back on his hills and looked at the glass that was reflecting his image. There should have been an image of a seventeen years old messy raven haired boy but instead there was a girl with a waist length raven hair stared back at him. He glanced sideways to find that girl but there was no one other than him in front of the shop.  
"What the hell?!"  
Harry exclaimed. He stared at the girl as she was staring right back at him with same wide eyed expression as he was. Harry could see his resemblance with the girl.  
Same face, same nose, same pale skin. But mostly the same Lilies eyes just with longer eyelashes. Also he wasn't wearing his spectacles. Everything was the same except with a more feminine trait. His face was smoother without any chin hair. His hair was long and not in its usual messy state but more in silky straight feature. Not to mention his lighting scar was also gone from his forehead AND he had pouty pink lips!  
What had changed the most was his body. He no longer had a male body but a female one with nice curves. Not to mention he was wearing a spaghetti straped white dress that came just on top of his knees. Altogether he was a very attractive female teenager.  
Harry took some deep breaths trying to calm him down.  
"Okay, Harry calm down. You have faced worst things than this. Calm down Harry, calm down. "  
But he was failing immensely.  
'DEATH!'  
Harry screamed in a very feminine voice. Everyone around turned around to look at him but he hardly cared. 'DEATH, WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU?'  
Suddenly everything around him became very quiet. Everything stopped in its track. Not even the wind was blowing. Every pedestrian stopped in its track, as if time had stopped running.  
'You have called, mistress.' Said a metallic grim voice from behind Harry. He whirled on his hills to look at Death. It was just as terrifying as it was before with its death scythe and pale boney hand and black hood and clock.  
'Yes I did.' Harry said with a heated tone. He was unaffected with Death's appearance as he was too horrified with his own body. 'Tell me Death ,why in the world have I been turned into a FEMALE?!' Harry demanded, voice raising at the last word.  
'Do you not like this body, mistress?' Death asked with a confused tone.  
'No, that's not it. It is not about whether I like this body or not it's about why.'  
'I thought it was obvious. Because, you look very beautiful as a female.'  
'What?!'  
Okay, did Death just compliment Harry of being a beauty? Not to mention was there a faint smirk in its complement? The world must be out of its wit.  
'That can't be the reason for you to turn me into a bloody WOMAN?' Harry screamed out unable to contain his anger.  
'No there was also the reason, so you can blend in and accomplish your mission to change the future. If you remain a male, things could be a bit _ complicated.' Death said to Harry.  
'And beside I have already warned you that you might lose yourself here. Did I not?' Death said with an air of arrogance. 'And you agreed to do anything to succeed in your plan.'  
Harry remembered their previous conversation. He knew Death was right. He was still angry but he calmed down a little.  
'Ugh…..So, what now?' Harry asked as he found nothing to argue with his servant.  
'Now it is time get the new identity for you. Go to the wizarding bank and get a blood test to know your heritage in this time. It will help you on the long run, mistress.' Saying that Death bowed a little in front of Harry. Harry nodded and disapparated from there and apparated in front of Leaky Cauldron with Death lingering behind him. No one but him noticed the hooded figure.  
The pair walked into the dusty pub and made their way to the back door where entrance of Diagon Ally was. Death held out its boney hand holding Harry's Phoenix feather wand as Harry was looking for his wand. Harry looked at it with surprised eyes.  
'Mistress, wanted to rejoin with her wand. Even though mistress has a far better and powerful wand but she preferred her former wand as mistress do not seek power.' Death answered Harry's unspoken question.  
Harry smiled a bit in reply knowing that what Death said was all true .He didn't even noticed that Death was referring him as mistress not as master.  
They entered through the archway into the busy road of Daiagon Ally. The pair came to halt in front of the snow white building of Gringotts. Harry entered the bank and came to a stop in front of a table with a young goblin sitting behind it.  
'Hello.' Harry said to catch the goblin's attention. The goblin looked up from his work to look at Harry.  
'How may I help you miss?' The goblin asked with a sneer.  
Taking a deep breath Harry said, 'I wish to make a blood test in order to know my heritage in this country. I shall pay whatever you require for the test.'  
'Very well I shall prepare everything for the test if you would just take a seat and wait.' The goblin replied and left to prepare everything.  
Harry waited only a few minutes when the goblin returned with a piece of parchment and a dagger.  
'Please, drop three drops of blood onto the parchment.' The goblin told Harry handing the dagger on his hand. Harry did as he was told. A moment later, writing formed onto the parchment reveling Harry's new identity.  
Name: Harlene Janis Peverel  
Father's name : Conrart Wilber Peverel  
Mother's name: Maylene Dalia Lensher  
Bloodstatus: Half Blood  
The heiress of the Ancient and Noble family of Peverel (by father's side)  
The heiress of the Ancient and Noble family of Griffindor(by father's side)  
The heiress of the Ancient and Noble family of Slytherin(by father's side)  
Blood relatives: Nicolie Potter; deceased ( descendant from the Peverel's and Godric Griffindor)  
Charlus Potter; alive (descendant from the Peverel's and Godric Griffindor)  
Marvolo Gaunt; deceased (descendant from the Peverel's and Salazar Slytherin)  
Morfin Gaunt; deceased (descendant from the Peverel's and Salazar Slytherin)  
Tom Riddle; alive (descendant from the Peverel's and Salazar Slytherin)  
Vaults: 111 of the Peverel's; 225 of the Griffindor's; 313 of the Slytherin's; 686 of the Potter's;667 of the Potter's;669 of the Potter's  
Total amount: 897,56,356 galleons'  
'I thought mistress would love to keep her heritage as close as much possible.' Death said to Harry or Harlene in this case.  
Harlene just nodded in approval. She stared at the parchment taking everything in. She knew she was related to Voldemort but after seeing the proof it just made it more real.  
'Oh, my!' The goblin exclaimed seeing her heritage. Harlene had almost forgotten about the goblin till now. 'You are Lady Peverel, the last heir of the most Ancient and Noble house of Peverel's!'  
Hearing the goblin's voice every goblin looked at their way. The goblin hurried to a more older looking goblin and whispered something to him. Listening to the younger goblin the older goblin rushed to Harlene's side.  
'Lady Peverel, welcome to Gringotts. It is a pleasure to attend to the heiress of one of the most ancient houses. I am Malkoth. Allow me to assist you.' The older goblin said.  
'I have lived all my life in Germany until recently my family was killed by the Dark Lord's followers so I don't have anywhere to stay in this country. So I wish to know if I can find a place to stay. And also I wish to finish my education on magic. As I have heard that Hogwarts is the well known magical school of Britain. I wish to attend my last year of education there. If you would be kind enough to send them a letter about this matter I will be grateful. Also I wish to withdraw some money from the Peverel's vault if I can.' Harlene told Malcoth with an air of confident.  
'Everything will be done according to your wish. A room shall be booked for you in the Leeky Cauldron. The finest for you. A letter shall be sent to the school as well and as for the Peverel's vault it has been sealed for many centuries as there was no one to claim to it. I shall make a key for you immediately after un-sealing it and bring it to you personally.' Said Malcoth with a little bow.  
'Thank you , Malcoth.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN:Thank you everyone for reading it and actually liking it.


	3. You should have known better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note: The name of this chapter is from the song 'Black widow' by Iggy Azalea.  
> Disclaimer: I own nothing but this stupid plot.

Tom Marvolo Riddle sat on the wooden chair of his room in the orphanage twirling the phoenix wand in his hand. His face was passive; no emotion was showing on his handsome face. But his brain was running wild thinking about his new discovery about the horcrux and the ring that he got from his uncle last summer. Even though he didn't like making any relation with that man but he came to great use after all.

Tom's icy blue eyes stared blankly at space. When suddenly someone burst opened the door. Tom absolutely ignored the sandy haired meaty boy that came through the door and stood in front of him.

'Well, well, well. If it isn't our favorite circus freak back in town' the sandy haired boy said with toothy grin showing his yellow tooth.

Tom closed his eyes before looking up at the meaty dumb headed muggle boy. He quirked an eye brow in amusement but didn't reply.

So the boy went on without even noticing the evil smirk that suddenly appeared on Tom's lips.

'I missed bashing you all the year, Tommy boy. It is really boring without having someone to vent me frustration.'

'Oh, I know. That's why I thank you for volunteering to this.' Tom said in a silky smooth voice filled with icy venom. But the dunderheaded boy hardly noticed that.

'Oh it is my pleasure.'

The muggle boy cracked his knuckles while grinning, ready to hit Tom. But his grin vanished when suddenly the door behind closed with a loud bang. He looked at the door with confusion.

'What the bloody hell?'

When he looked back he suddenly realized Tom was right in front of him standing on his full six feet two inches height. They were almost nose to nose. The muggle boy stumbled back ward in surprise.

'I must say, I will have all the fun in the world while torturing you.' Tom said in silky voice much like his older version

'CRUCIO'

* * *

 

Harlene shot up on her bed sweating and shivering because of the dream she had. She dreamt about the time Harry was standing in front of Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest waiting for him to cast the killing curse. She could remember how empty he felt at that moment staring at his death right in the eye.

She got down from the bed and stood in front of the window of her room. She was now staying in the Leaky Cauldron. She looked through the dusty window. The sky outside was still dark but there was faint light on the horizon which means dawn is close. She watched as sky cleared and sun rose. Trying to forget the nightmare she went to the bathroom to freshen up.

After breakfast Harlene was sitting in her room in a new light blue dress she bought , as someone knocked at her door.

'Come in.'

The door of her room opened reveling none other Albus Dumbledore himself. Harlene was taken a back after seeing her former headmaster in front of her. Her eyes irritated as tears swam in her eyes. She quickly turned her head to hide her tears from him.

'How may I help you?' Harlene after composing herself. She tried to sound formal.

'I am Albus Dumbledore. I am the Assistant Headmaster of Hogwarts .' Dumbledore said with an even voice. His twinkling eyes stared straight at her. He could sense an unusual power coming from this girl. But he couldn't really understand what kind of power it was.

She is powerful. Her powers seem to be radiating from her.

'We received a letter from the goblins for requesting for a seat in our school for transfer student from Germany.'

'Yes, I was the one who asked the goblins to send a letter to your school. As you see I have lost my only guardian in the war.' Harlene said to her professor.

'Oh. I am sorry. How did that happen?' Dumbledore asked sincerely.

'My guardian Olivia Silvett was a Light wizard. She was a powerful witch. The Dark Lord wanted her on his side. So he sent his followers to get her. But she refused. As a result they started shooting spells at her. I helped her in the fight but we were outnumbered. Soon a spell hit her and before I could do anything she was dead.' Harlene stopped. Her eyes were swimming with tears. Her vision was burr because of it. She was remembering how Sirius had died and Dumbledore and Remus. She remembered every one of them who gave their life against the Dark Lord.

Dumbledore watched in silence as raven haired witch spoke. He could see the emotion behind her eyes.

'She had made a portkey for us to travel. After she died I used the portkey to travel here in London.' She spoke after a little while.

'Ms. Peverel if I may why was your guardian name was Silvett when you are a Peverel?' Dumbledore asked her after a while.

'My father's name was Peverel. You see I was an orphan raised in a muggle family until I was eleven when Olivia found me. She realized I was a witch. She saw that the muggle family didn't treat me correctly so she took me in. I have been staying with her for the last six years until…..' she trailed off making it seem like she was in great grief of remembering her death.

'I understand.' Dumbledore said in a soothing understanding voice. He believed her words. Harlene smirked inwardly for that. After years of experience she has realized that the best lie is the one that is closest to truth.

'Ms. Peverel here is your letter for Hogwarts. I personally came to give you that as you are new here. Inside the envelop you shell find the list for your necessary things for your stay.' Dumbledore said to her.

'Thank you.'

'And the ticket to Hogwarts express. The train will leave exactly at eleven's at first of September. I shall come here to escort you there.' Dumbledore said while giving her the golden ticket. Harlene took the ticket and looked at it nostalgically. So many memory swarmed into her mind. But she kept passive face.

'That is all Ms. Peverel. So, for today I shall take your leave. We shall meet on the promised day. Good day.' With that Dumbledore stood up and strode out of the room.

'Good day to you too.'

* * *

 

Harlene looked at the steaming engine of Hogwarts express. Dumbledore took her to the King's Cross station at 10:45. After passing through the barrier he left her on the station biding good bye and wishing good luck for her term on Hogwarts.

Harlene hurriedly levitate her trunk with the levitation charm and got onto the train. She strode through the passageway to find an empty compartment while also thinking about avoiding Tom Riddle as much as possible.

She came to a halt in front of an empty compartment. At least that was what she thought. Harlene was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't even notice the tall boy by the door while entering the compartment. Even the boy didn't notice her until she closed the door behind her.

'Excuse me. This compartment is taken.' Harlene heard a smooth masculine voice addressing to her. Her head shot up toward the voice as she recognized the person.

 _Oh God_.

The one person she was trying to avoid and she just walked right into his den.

There he sat in his high and mighty glory staring right at her with his icy blue eyes. Being just as handsome and aristocratic as always (except for the future where he has snake face…..ugh).

Harlene watched him carefully remembering the time when Harry met with Tom in the Chamber of Secrets. He was as same as she remembered. Same pale skin with a head full of nicely combed curly black hair. A handsome face accessorized with a pair of icy blue eyes. Nice chic bone. A steep nose. Over all total an incredible handsome person.

'Did you not hear what I said?' Harlene watched as Tom said in an impatient voice.

'Yeah I heard. What about it?'

'Then you should know that you can't sit here.'

'I don't see any one beside you in this compartment so I think I can.' Harlene said with a sarcastic tone.

Looks like as I couldn't avoid him so why not just tease him a bit.

Harlene thought knowing Tom cant harm her in this time at least not while she is in this school.

Tom's eyes flashed with anger at her but he kept composure and said in a calm voice.

'You can't sit in this compartment.'

'Oh really? And why is that?'

'Because I said so.' Tom said in an dangerous voice. His face was no longer impassive rather anger flashed through his face.

'And I am supposed to listen to you why?' Harlene said in an incredulous voice. Herlene's right hand was twitching to get her wand in a moment's notice.

Bang!

Tom's hand made a loud noise as it made contact with the compartment door while imprisoning Harlene between him and the door. His one hand rested on the door and the other held his wand which was now close to Harlene's throat.

'Listen you….' He meant to threat her but stopped in mid-sentence as he felt something poking on his chest. He glanced down to see a wand pointing directly at his heart.

She was threatening to curse him.

He glanced up to see a pair of killing curse green eyes staring right back at him.

At first she was startled by his sudden attack but she was not intimidated by him at all. Rather she was challenging him. And Tom understood that.

He was taken aback by the girl's confidence. Suddenly Tom's quirked in a devilish smirk. He removed his wand from her throat and brought his face down to her ears and whispered in a seductive voice.

'Ms. I suggest you do, otherwise there are many things I can do to you while you are here. And I am sure some them you may have not even thought of.'

A shudder went down Harlene's body as she listened to him. Just the reaction he was hoping to find.

Harlene found her blood boiling with anger and she felt like killing him right at the moment. She could feel her power lashing out for that reason. Before it could get out of control she shoved the tall teen with all her might to get him away from her.

Tom was not ready for that, so he was thrown off balance and landed on the sit beside them. He was startled at that. He meant to say something to her to intimidate her but he was left with no word.

Harlene too was surprised with the situation so she decided to leave before thing get out of hand.

'P-pardon me, I didn't mean to….um….SORRY FOR DISTURBING YOU.' Screaming the last part Harlene stormed out of the compartment leaving a very flustered teen behind.


	4. Always knew my home was in paradise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: I got this chapter's name from the song 'Home Again' by The Disco Biscuits.  
> Disclaimer: I own nothing

_"What the hell Harlene?! What the bloody hell were you thinking?! You wanted to avoid him now you just dragged his attention at you. AAAAaaaaaaaaaahhhhh….. You are such an idiot!"_

Harlene was kicking herself about the incident with Tom while going through the passageway of the train looking for a new compartment. Her trunk was hovering behind her as she made her way to another empty compartment. She plopped onto the sit and dropped the trunk in front of her feet on the ground. She buried her face in her hand while groaning loudly in frustration.

_"Idiot, idiot, idiot. IDIOT!"_

She sighed in her hands. She looked up as she felt the train moving leaving for Hogwarts.

Well at least I am going back to Hogwarts. Maybe he won't even notice me there in the crowd.

Oh if only she knew how wrong she was.

While Harlene was kicking herself on the other compartment Tom was sitting in his in utter bewilderment. He couldn't believe what just happened a few minutes ago.

That girl had threatened him. Him, who was the Heir of Salazar Slytherin. He, who discovered the deepest secrets of Hogwarts, the most brilliant wizard of the century. And some random girl threatened him. Tom growled in anger and frustration.

Who was that girl?

Tom tried to calm himself and to think about that imbecile girl. But the more he tried to forget her all the more he remembered her. How she stood her ground in front of him. How she confronted him without any fear.

Yes, she was startled at the end but never scared. No, she never got scared of him.

_"And there was that mysterious power I felt around her. What was that? I never felt such power before. She maybe even is as powerful as me. I should keep an eye on her."_

Tom gave a smirk on that thought. This year it might not be as boring as he thought. With that he lent back on his seat. A smirk tugging on his lips as the train made through Britain towards Hogwarts.

* * *

 

As the train stopped at the Hogsmede Harlene stepped down from the train, already changed into her school uniform. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. After many failed attempt she finally managed to tie her hair with a rubber band. A lock of black hair was resting on the side of her forehead.

She looked around the station and a sense of nostalgia crept into her. She remembered the first time Harry had set foot on this station. How Hagrid greeted them and took them by the boat to his new home.

She shook her head trying to forget about those events.

There is no point remembering those events. Those were Harry's memories not hers. Wait she was Harry. Wasn't she? No, she and Harry were completely two different persons.

'Ms. Peverel.' Harlene heard a familiar voice calling for her. She looked around to see Dumbledore standing a little fur from away from the swarming students.

'Professor' she greeted him politely.

'Ms. Peverel why don't you come with me. I will take you to castle'

'Alright'

They left the station together without even noticing a pair of icy blue eyes trailing behind them as they leave.

The pair occupied one of those Threstal carriages. Harlene watched as the beautiful scenery of the Hogwarts castle came in view. She looked at in awestruck expression as she has never seen it before. A homey feeling lingered inside of her at sight of the castle. She remembered the warm feeling of the fireplace of Gryffindor common room. Harry's four poster bed. The Great Hall and its night sky ceiling and the Quiditch pitch.

Dumbledore watched closely as the teenage girl stared at the castle. He couldn't but think that she was looking at it like she was coming back home after a long time.

_"Wonder why that is?"_

'I have already talked with Headmaster Dippet about your admission. He have asked me to take you straight to the Great Hall for sorting.' Dumbledore told her by breaking the silence.

'Sorting?' Harlene asked acting as if she didn't know what sorting was.

'Yes, before taking your seat in the hall you will be sorted in a house. We have four houses named after our four founders: Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin. You will have to stay in your sorted house for rest of your term. It will be like your home in the castle.'

'How will I be sorted in the house?' her Slytherin linage told her that it was best to act ignorant, especially in front of certain few persons.

'It will be about some virtues you uphold. You shall know when we reach the castle.'

* * *

 

Tom Riddle sat at the Slytherin table with a few of his followers surrounding him. His watched as the sorting of the first years continues but he was barely noticing anything at all. His mind was still occupied with the mysterious arrogant girl he met at the train.

'Peverel, Harlene.'

Dumbledore called the last name of the chart. The whole hall suddenly became silent. Tom frowned at the silence of the hall and noticed the silky black haired girl walked toward the three legged stool. Dumbledore put the hat on her head and watched carefully.

The Hat kept quiet for a long not saying anything at all. It remained in a frowning look as if it was thinking hard about where to put her.

Ten minutes past but the hat didn't say anything at all. The Hall was getting impatient to know where this new transfer student will be sorted.

_"She will probably be going to Hufflepuff . Judging by the fact how she doesn't have the brain to see danger. Maybe even Gryffindor seeing how bold she was."_

Tom snorted, thinking that the dumb girl wont cross his path ever again.

'SLYTHERIN!'

Exactly that very moment the Hat announced to the hall. For a moment the whole hall was quiet then the Slytherin house cheered as Harlene made her way toward the Slytherine table. Other houses were irritated at the news. As for Tom, well his eye brows frowned together and a disturbed look formed on his face on the new development.

Even Dumbledore was surprised at the news. But he kept a neutral face and decided to watch everything quietly.

Harlene slumped down at the corner of the Slytherin table. She herself couldn't believe that she was in Slytherin.

Well it shouldn't be a surprised judging by how she had been cunningly making her way, not to mention even when Harry was being sorted the hat did think of putting him in Slytherin.

'Hi!'

A brown haired girl greeted her on the table. She was pretty looking with brown eyes and creamy skin.

'Hello!'

'I am Catalina McMillan.'

'I'm Harlene. Harlene Peverel.'

'Well, Peverel as in the Peverel brothers mentioned in The Tales of Beedle the Bard? The one who met death in a lonely road? The three Peverel brothers?' The girl, Catalina asked in one breath.

_"Yup, that's the one."_

But Harlene wasn't going tell her that. Was she? Rather she chose to be a true Slytherin and twist the truth knowing that several others were listening to their conversation.

'Well I wouldn't know that would I? You see my parents died when I was only 1 year old. Leaving me behind in the hand of my only relative. They were muggles you they didn't know anything about the wizarding world and neither did I. I only found out about it when another witch caught me using magic and adopted me. I learned all my magic from her.'

'So you had to live with the muggles?' Catalina said in a disgusted expression.

'Yeah they weren't very nice people. But not all muggles are bad like them.' Harlene said in a matter of fact voice. 'Any way as for my Peverel heritage I only found out about that when I came to London and took a blood test. So I don't know if they were the one you said they were.'

'Oh I guess you are right. But then again not many people know about the Peverel brothers being the brothers mentioned in the book.'

'Is that so?'

'Well I only know about them because my mother researched about them. She writes about the origin of the magical tales of our wizarding world.'

Harlene smiled at the talkative girl. She kind of reminded her of Luna. She had already become a friends with this talkative girl. Harlene looked around the table while taking food in her plate to eat. She saw Tom Riddle sitting at the far end of the table. He wasn't looking at her but before she could avert her eyes he looked up and stared right at her. He face was passive but his eyes stared right at her like he was trying to intimidate her which wasn't working very well. Harlene didn't avert her eyes from her, daring him to do anything. After a long stare off he looked away.

'That's Tom Riddle. The most eligible boy of Hogwarts.' Catalina informed her seeing how she was looking at him.

'Mhmm.'

'All the girls in Hogwarts swoon over him. It isn't a surprise that you would notice him.'

'What! No! It's nothing like that. It's just we met in the train and…let just say it didn't go well.'

'Well you will be smart to avoid him. I know he is good looking and all that but there is something very dark about him. Not to mention he thinks that girls are not of his taste.' Catalina said in a grudging voice like she had been dumped by him already.

'What…are you saying that he is….gay?' Harlene said with wide eyed expression. Of all the things she thought about our dear old Voldy she definitely did not see that one coming.

'Oh nonono..no! He is not that. He doesn't hold any interest of that sort. It's not like he never had…um..you know…..' Catalnia trailed off in an embarrassed tone, blush creeping on her face.

'Sex…' Harlene finished her making her jump with the word.

'Yes that. Well it's mostly casual. Word mostly goes around that he might be asexual.' She said while tuning in a deep shade of red.

_"Huh what you know he is human after all. He does have human urges. Who would have thought?"_

She snorted at that thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Okay I am trying to portrait Tom Riddle as any other teenage boy with their normal problems. But then again he isnt a normal teenager after all. So it will be a bit difficult to do.  
> Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. :)


	5. There is a spark in you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's title is from the song 'Fireworks' by Katy Perry.

Tom watched as Harlene Peverel talked with the McMillan girl. He noticed that many male students watched her with greedy eyes. 

_"What did they see in her? She has average height. Too pale skin, like a vampire. Her hair looks like a bird's nest. At least she has tied that hair. Not to mention she does not even have the grace of a refine pureblood women. She is too bold for her own good. Her only good point was those green eyes. They were a very uncommon color of green."_

Abarxus Malfoy was sitting beside Tom on the table. He too was watching the new girl but he showed a look of lust rather contempt like the other boys.

'Looks like we got a new play thing this year.' He told Tom which he ignored completely. 'It was getting rather boring to see the ugly bodies of those stupid girls like McMillan.'

'What is so interesting about her anyway?' Lucretia Black joined the conversation waving her dark hair away from her face. 'She is nothing but average looking.'

'Awww Lu is that jealousy I hear?' Alphared Black said in a mocking voice to his cousin.

'Jealous? Me? You must be out of your mind to even ask that Alphi.' Lucretia snapped at her cousin.

'Sure, sure. Whatever you say.' Alphared replied in the same mocking tone. Lucretia growled at her cousin for that.

_"She is the Head Girl of the Slytherin House also the selfproclaimed Queen. She does not get jealous especially to some halfblood."_

'Hey,Riddle did you noticed the new girl?' Abarxus MAlfoy asked him to know about the Head Boy of Slytherin House's opinion.

The table around them became quiet to listen to their conversation.

'Harlene Peverel , I think everyone noticed her after her big introduction.' Tom meant to say in a nonchalant tone but nobody missed the slight icyness in his voice.

'She seemed to glare at you for some reason, Riddle.' Pugfaced Laurinda Perkinson said while looking at Harlene's direction who just turned away from glaring at Tom.

'She probably was trying to seek his attention.' Lucretia said while cutting her chicken.

Everyone ignored that knowing full well that she was fuming with jealousy that Tom had noticed Harlene.

Suddenly Theodor Nott exclaimed, 'She's got some nice rack.' He was looking at Harlene with lusty smile. Some of the other boys of the table nodded in agreement.

Tom wasn't making any comment on the topic. He was simply observing everyone. He was more interested to know about the girl's power and if that power can come handy to him.

For that I will have to befriend her. That shouldn't be a problem.

'Alright, my fellow Slytherin…..'

* * *

 

Harlene walked towards the door with Catalina .They had became friends quiet easily.

'Oh just so you know in the Slytherin House has a rule for the new students.' Catalina said while stopping in an abrupt halt.

'Yeah? And what is that?' Harlene said not really bothering about it too much.

'Every student has to face a certain task to prove their worthy ness of being a Slytherin set by the King. It is different for everyone. The result of the task impacts on the ranking.'

'Ranking?'

'Yes, the students of this house ranked up according to their powers and cunning-ness. Sometimes even according to their blood status.'

'So let me get this straight, I will have to go through some stupid ass task just to have some peace in my dormitory?'

'Yes.'

'Great!'

Harlene said in an irritated voice. Grimacing at the thought of what kind of task can a Slytherin give her?

'As this year's new King is Riddle, he will be the one to set the task.'

_"Even better it won't be bull headed, it definitely will sadistic or worse evil."_

'I wonder what kind task he will give.'

'We will have to wait to find out.'

With that they walked out of the Great Hall and bumped to Tom Riddle's cavalry. Harlene could feel the cold stares from some of them and also some lusty ones.

'Is there something on my face?' Harlene said with irritation. There was no way these block headed Slytherins could intimidate her.

Everyone on the opposite group froze on that comment. Even though she was only looking at one particular boy she could feel the scanning gaze of other members of the group. Everyone was sizing her. Some of them were undressing her with their eyes.

After like a millennia, the stare off between Tom and Harlene broke as he stepped forward to introduce himself.

'I believe we haven't been properly introduced with each other, Ms. Peverel. I am Tom Riddle, Head Boy of Slytherin House. It is a pleasure to meet you.' Tom said with the sweetest smile, that can make even the hardest person melt away.

'I am sure it is.' Harlene said with a cheeky tone that matched her faux smile.

Tom raised his eyebrows in a reluctant manner. Everyone inhaled at her brash behavior.

'How dare you, speak to Tom Riddle like that, you filthy scum?' Walburga Black suddenly said from their midst. She hadn't said a single word since the new girl has arrived till now.

Harlene's eye brows shot up in recognition. Wow, how many times Harry had heard that voice while staying in the Grimuld place. But she won't back down just because of that. She was not that kind of person.

'Well, unlike some backboneless amoebas, I have selfrespect and decided not to linger around people with an ego of the size of a planet.' Harlene said with an air of disdain and confidence. With that she took very stunned Catalina's hand and left the gaping group of 'boneless amoebas'.

For the second time that day Tom felt himself to be speechless by that girl. He turned around and watched as she left the place. He murmured under his breath.

'Good luck tonight, Ms. Peverel. You will definitely need it.'

* * *

 

Harlene and Catalina entered the Slytherin common after leaving the group. Catalina was still shocked about the incident that occurred a few minutes ago. She hadn't uttered a single word.

'Wow.' That was the first thing she said after settling down on a couch near the fireplace. 'You completely closed their mouth.'

'It was nothing.' Harlene said with a smile.

'No seriously no one has ever been able to do that.' She said in a bewildered expression.

'Mmmm, I guess they don't know how to shut someone up then.' Harlene said in mocking voice.

'Maybe. But I have to admit that was incredible. Truly.'

'Alright, alright. Enough talk about that now. Any idea where I'm going to sleep? I am tired.' Harlene said while yawning widely.

'Well seventh year's students usually sleep in their own room so I guess the empty room in the girls dormitory will be yours. Come on, I will show you' She said by taking her arm and tugging her toward a door on their left. It led them to a passageway with doors on both sides.

Catalina stopped in front of the last door and opened it revealing a room with a four poster bed and a dressing table at the left wall. On the opposite wall was another door which led to the bathroom. All her belongings were already kept in this room.

'Well my room is next door. So if you need anything then just call me.' With that she left Harlene in her room to rest.

* * *

 

It was around little after midnight when suddenly someone shook Harlene abruptly in her sleep.

' Harlene, wake up.'

Harlene groaned but woke up from her sleep. She saw Catalina was standing by her bed in her dressing gown.

'Cat, what's wrong?'

'They are here and they are asking for you.' Catalina said in an urgent voice.

'Who are here?' Harlene in an irritated voice but she still went for her wand on instinct.

'The King and his Knights.' Catalina said in a hushed voice.

'Huh?'

'Offo you forgot? They are here for the task.' Catalina said in a amused voice.

'In the middle of the night?'

'According to them it's the best time. Beside they are done with everyone else you are the only one left. So get up. Don't worry they won't do anything to hurt you…. well at least not when there is witness.' Harlene grudgingly got up from the bed or more like Catalina dragged her out of it.

'If you don't go now they will get you later which are worse.'

Catalina squealed looking at her clothing. She was wearing nothing but a big white shirt that came on top of her thigh.

'Where is your trouser?'

'Apparently I don't like wearing trouser while seeping.'

'Well you are not sleeping now so put on your ptrouser.'

The pair came out in the common room about ten minutes later. Harlene was still grudging over the fact that they woke her up at this time of the night.

Catalina left her in the middle of the room and went to seat in the furthest seat. Harlene glared at Tom Riddle who was sitting right in front of her on the couch. His minions were lingering behind him. She noticed that he was still wearing his robes.

'Good evening, .'

He said to her in a silky smooth voice with a smile on his lips. Harlene only raised an eye brow without uttering a word.

'You must have been informed that we, Slytherins have a small ceremony at first night of the school term. Where new students has to show there skills in order to….prosper.' Harlene put her both hands on her hips and stared at him.

'As you are a new student too so you have to go through the same process.'

'Yeah, yeah. Just stop kicking around bushes and get to the point. What do I have to do get you people out of my ass?' Harlene said in an impatient tone.

Tom smirked again before speaking, 'Oh nothing much.'

He got up and stepped towards her. He stopped right in front of her and said in a seductive whisper.

'All you have to do is impress me.'

_"What the hell is he talking about? Has he already lost his sanity?" Harlene frowned at him._  Tom stepped back and brought his wand out.

'I am not dueling you.' Harlene said to him in a bored voice knowing what will happen if they duell.

'Oh no. You won't be dueling me. Rather you will be dueling this.' Tom said, swishing his wand around on top of his head once and then pointing at her.

A smoke erupted from the tip of his wand and landed on the ground in front of her feet. Soon it formed into a serpent quite similar to Nagini. Everyone in the room gasped at the snake as it hissed viciously. Harlene brought out her wand unsure of what to do to it.

Harlene pointed her wand at it and a red spark came out of it and hit the snake. She gotten rather good with nonverbal spells after the meeting with Death. The snake hissed for a moment but nothing else happened to it, making Harlene frowned.

_"Of course he would use dark magic to create a snake. If he didn't who else would?"_

Harlene shoot few more spell at it but nothing happened. The growing smile of Tom's minion's irritated her. Tom on the other hand watched discreetly as she danced around the room firing spell at her.

_"Come on Peverel. Show me what you are hiding."_

At a moment of distraction the snake leaped at her throat in a great agility to bite . Everyone in the room gasped at it thinking that she will definitely be injured.

But they were wrong, with the seekers ability Harlene caught the snake's neck at the right moment. Now she was lying on her back while holding the snake by its neck dangerously closed to her face.

/You are mine human/

The snake hissed at her. Instinctively Harlene replied in perseltongue.

/No. You will not eat me/

/Another perselmouth! It is an honor to meet another perselmouth./

/That is good. Now BEHAVE!/

Harlene hissed at the snake. But suddenly the snake disappeared from her hand. Realizing what she has done she shot up to her feet immediately. Looking around she saw some stunned face. But she didn't care about them. She turned to see the look of Tom's face. He was looking at her like he had seen a ghost.

'Oh God!' that was the only thing Harlene could say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Oho!!! what will happen to Harlene now? ;) Keep reading to know more.


	6. One way or another

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tittle of this chapter is from the song 'One Way or Another' by Blondie from 1979's version of the song. Not the One Direction version, because I thought that version of the song will fit the chapter more accurately.  
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything other than the plot of the story not the character.

It had been three weeks since Harlene had the incident with the faux snake. In these past three weeks she had tried her hardest to avoid any close encounter with a certain handsome devil. It was a very hard thing to do based on the fact that they were both seventh years and from the same house, but Harlene managed to do it anyway.

After that night, Harlene fell under the familiar spot light, and became the center of everyone's gossip. Some of the Slytherins even tried to befriend her thinking she was some kind of powerful Dark Witch.

_"Huh! second year all over again. Except there Harry was ignored, and now I am approached by these idiots. Ugh!"_

Only Catalina didn't say much about what happened. She only said, 'It is very nice that you can talk with snakes. I wish I could talk with animals too.'

_"Totally Luna Lovegood. Hmm…. Luna Lovegood in 1944. hahaha!!"_

What bothered Harlene the most was the constant gaze of Tom Riddle. Because of the fact that she was avoiding any interaction with him, he couldn't even see her outside of their classes; so in every class he stares at her like his life depended on it. Whenever he stared at her he always had this thoughtful look on his face.

In this three weeks Tom had tried to approach her to talk but every time he came within a hundred meters she would just find the nearest exit and run away.

After a long tiring day of classes Harlene fell asleep on her bed almost immediately, but she didn't have a sound sleep. She kept dreaming about Harry's time at the war where every second had been spent looking behind his shoulder to make sure no one had caught up to them. To make sure that Deatheaters hadn't killed anymore of his loved one.

After that she would dream about the time when Harry was standing in front of Voldemort to die. That was the worst dream of all. She was having the same dream today, as well.

_Voldemort had raised his wand. His head was still tilted to one side, like a curious child, wondering what would happen if he proceeded. Harry looked back into the red eyes, and wanted it to happen now,quickly, while he could still stand, before he lost control, before fear betrayed himHe saw the mouth move and a flash of green light coming at him from his wand­_

"Noooo!" Harlene shot up on from her bed, screaming her lungs out  and panting heavily. Her night shirt was drenched in sweat and clinging to her body. As she sat on the bed she felt herself calming down with every second that flew by.

Every night it was the same. Nothing changed, not a single thing. But what was odd that whenever she had this dream, she always watched it from a third person's point of view. The feeling she had at that time was the same as Harry's, but she always watched it from the sidelines. As if she was watching Harry's memories in the Pensive. _Weird!_

Knowing she wouldn't be able sleep anymore, Harlene decided to go for a walk to clear her mind. Getting up from her bed, she looked through the glass window beside her bed. She noticed that the sky was still dark, the sun still hadn't risen. She checked her watch and saw that it was 4'o clock in the morning. The curfew hadn't ended yet. Still, she got dressed and went out of the common room without making any noise.

She roamed around the castle watching the portraits sleep. She really liked this time; everything was so quiet and calm.

Harlene walked for a while. The watch on her wrist said it had been almost half hour since she stepped out from her dormitory. While passing a corner Harlene saw the Bloody Baron was coming toward her. And she had nowhere to hide. She tried to think of a way out but she had none.

_"Shit! If only I had my Invisibility Cloak."_

She was about to be caught by the ghost when suddenly a hand clapped over her mouth and pulled her backward. She bumped onto a muscled chest. Harlene felt a familiar feeling of Cloaking spell covering her. With the hand still clamped on her mouth, Harlene looked back only to see the face of Tom Riddle.

_"Of course it's him. Who else would it be at this hour?"_

Tom put a slender finger on his perfect lips. Harlene simply gave him a nod as he slid his hand off of her mouth. As soon as he took his hands off, Harlene tried to move away from him. This closeness was making her uncomfortable. But Tom snaked a hand across her stomach and kept her there. Harlene tried to wriggle out of his hand. But she couldn't even move an inch in his strong arm. Tom frowned at her for trying to slither away from him. After a few attempts, Harlene sighed and gave up.

The Bloody Baron floated, while moving closer towards them. Harlene held her breath as the ghost floated past them. She sighed in relief when he left the corridor where they were standing.

Tom waved his hand over them and took off the Cloaking spell; his other hand was still holding Harlene close to him. Harlene exhaled in relief but frowned instantly as she noticed his hand on her stomach. She wriggled out of his arm quickly.

Tom quirked an eyebrow at her but didn't make any comment about it. Instead he took a step back and gave her a bit of space.

Harlene suddenly noticed who she was with. She tried think of a way to avoid his questions but nothing came in her mind.

"Wandering around with the curfew still up, are we?" Tom said, breaking her train of thought. Harlene raised an eyebrow but didn't reply, not that he was expecting any. 'You should know Ms. Peverell, walking at this hour can be quite dangerous, especially for someone like you.'

Harlene's both eyebrows shot up, almost touching her black hair line.

"If you are trying to scare me, then sorry cause I have never been one to squirm away in fear and look for a rabbit hole. If there is danger, I would rather face it than run away."' Harelene boldly stated quirking her head little.

"Hmmm…..but we still run away in fear of being caught. Don't we?" Tom said in an amused voice. He gave her smirk that could take away the breath of any girl.

Harlene frowned, realizing what he was implying. "I'm not a coward, if that's what you are saying."

"But you still run away from a possible confrontation." Tom said while taking a step closer to her, never taking his eyes off of her. Harlene instinctively took a step back, without even realizing she did.

"I didn't run away from any confrontation." Harlene boldly said, trying to hide the panic her in her voice. But Tom saw right through her.

"Oh, really? Then what are you running away from Ms. Peverell?" Tom asked in a low voice, still closing the distance between them, forcing Harlene to back up against the wall behind her.

"That is none of your business." Harlene said, panic creeping into her, seeing her back was up against the wall. But she didn't let it show on her face; rather she tried to slide away from there, "Now go away."

"Ah, ah, ah, not so fast." Tom stopped her from slipping away from him by putting both of his hands beside her head, trapping her there. "I'm not done talking with you."

Seeing that see had no way to escape, Harlene exhaled in irritation. "What do you want Riddle?"

"I want to know who you really are." Tom asked her instantly. That question surprised her; she thought hat he would ask about her being a Parselmouth..

"Wha­? I..um… I'm Harlene. Harlene Peverell. What do you mean 'who I really am'?" Harlene said in a confused tone, frowning at him in confusion.

"That is just the story you told everyone. You and I both know that is not all." Tom said in a low seductive voice. His face was now inches away from her. Harlene's eyes became wide in surprise.

_"No way….. he couldn't have­..."_

"I don't know what you are talking about!"' Harlene said in a cold voice, her expression turned stony.

"I think you do. You know exactly who you are, but you don't want the world to know. Now, why is that?" Tom said, still speaking in a low voice.

"That is entirely my business, Riddle. And I suggest you don't meddle with my business." Harlene hissed at him. Her voice filled with venom. "Now, if you are done, I will be going back to my dormitory." Harlene said with the same chilly tone.

Tom stared at her for a long moment before taking his hands off the wall, and backing away from her. He didn't take his gaze away from her for a single moment.

_"I will make you spill the beans Ms. Pevere… eventually."_

"As you wish, Ms. Peverell. I shall escort you back to the common room." Tom said after a long stare off between them. Harlene walked passed him without uttering a word, followed by Tom closely behind her.

The walk toward the common room was quiet. No one said a single word. Harlene was too mad to say anything, while Tom was too busy trying to think of way to make her spill her secrets.

They stopped in front of the door to the girl's dormitory. Harlene opened the door to quickly get away from him.

"I suggest you get to the potion class tonight at exactly 7 pm." Tom suddenly said behind her.

Harlene tuned around to look at him, her eyebrows furrowed.

"What? Why do I need to go to the potion class?" Harlene asked him irritably, one hand still on the handle of the door.

"For detention." Tom said. He said as if she was being an idiot for asking.

"Detention? For what?" Harlene exclaimed with surprise. Her mouth agape in a confused manner.

"For breaking the curfew and wondering around the castle at night." Tom said with nonchalance coating his voice. His hands were behind his back, he was in his ideal student/Head Boy mode. "So make sure you are there on time. Good day."

With that he turned on his heels and walked towards the door of the boy's dormitory on the other end of the room, leaving Harlene in her surprised state.

"That bloody bastard!"

* * *

 

At 7 pm that night Harlene came in front of the door of the potion class. She sighed; there was small aching pain in her chest as she remembered all the numerous times Harry walked into this office.

Snape's office.

Harlene composed herself before knocking at the door.

"Come in."

She could hear the faint voice of Horace Slughorn through the door. She opened the door slowly and stepped inside the room.

"Professor I was here for my…." Harlene trailed off as she noticed another person standing inside the room. Tom Riddle.

"Oh Ms. Peverel. You are here for your detention. Right? I'm afraid I am not feeling very good. I must excuse myself for tonight."

"Oh! It's alright Professor I'll come back some other….."

"No, no, it's alright. I only needed to stay here to watch over you, which can be done by anyone. So I asked Tom to help out. He will be here in my place." Slughorn said, while getting up from his chair and walking towards the door, where a very dumbfounded Harlene was standing with an open mouth.

_"What?! You got to be kidding me!"_

"Tom, my boy, I hope it won't be too much trouble."

"Of course not, sir. Absolutely not." Tom said the last sentence with a slight evil tone, which was un­noticed by Slughorn, but Harlene didn't miss it. She gritted her teeth, while giving him a death glare.

"Alright then. I shall leave it to you, my boy."

Slughorn left the room to a very irritated witch and an amused wizard. Harlene glared at Tom as he gave her a sweet (like getting diabetes kind of sweet) smile.

"What do I have to do, Riddle?" Harlene said in a chilly voice.

"Your task is on the table. Get your potion book and start working on it." Tom said while sitting down on a chair, and pulling a book out to pass the time.

Harlene went to the table to find the ingredients to make the Draught of Living Dead. Harlene smirked at that, thanks to the book of the Half­Blood Prince a.k.a. Severus Snape Harry had learned to make the perfect potion than the book.

She went to work on it immediately. The potion was turning into the perfect color as she proceeded on. Humming to herself in satisfaction, Harlene didn't even notice the tall figure that was standing behind her, watching her work. She took a step back and bumped onto his chest.

"Wha­? What the hell"' Harlene exclaimed with complete irritation. But Tom wasn't paying any attention to her; he was staring at her potion, which was turning into light shade of purple.

"How did you do that?" Tom asked, still eyeing the potion, which was now a pale shade of purple.

"Do what?" Harlene asked, she didn't understand what he was saying.

"The Draught. It shouldn't be turning this color." Tom said. He was leaning on the table to take a better look at the potion.

"It wouldn't be if you process according to the book."' Harlene said to him, she was startled by his sudden change of mood, but it didn't surprise her, knowing his thirst for knowledge.

"Then what process did you use?" Tom looked at her, his eyes wide with the hunger for new information.

"It was a different one" she said trying to avoid the topic as it brought back some sad memories.

"Where did you learn it?" Tom asked, seeing as she didn't want to tell, he pressed it even more. He wanted make her spill some of her secrets.

Harlene sighed, tired of all the lies, she decided to tell him. Only a little. "My potions master taught me this. He was brilliant at potions." Her voice faltered a bit at the end.

Tom saw the glint of sadness in her eyes, for some un­known reason he didn't like seeing her sad.

"What happened to him?" He asked her in a soothing voice.

"He died, while trying to save the world." She said with a sad smile. "He died while protecting me."

"He sounds like a wonderful person." Tom said to sooth her sadness. Why did his heart suddenly ache?

"He was the bravest man I ever met." Harlene smiled bit.

"You seem to like him a lot." Tom said her with small smile. But he suddenly felt a slight irritation, which disappeared in a second, so he couldn't detect it.

"Actually I hated him at first. I couldn't even stand him." Harlene said with a chuckle. Tom smiled at that, as relief washed over him. Relief?

"He was never nice to me. He always used to snarl at me for no reason." Harlene said with a nostalgic look in her eyes.

"Like you do with me." Tom said, suddenly remembering his motive to be here.

"Huh!... That is a totally different thing. He only acted to appear despised of me, so he could protect me. I don't act to despise you. I really despise you."

Tom frowned at her. He didn't understand the reason for her to hate him this much. Nobody hated him.

"He was a great man. You on the other hand are just…evil." Harlene hissed at him. They were standing in front of each other. Harlene had to look up at him because of the height difference. (He was 6feet 2 while she was 5 feet 6).

"What did I ever do to you to deserve such …hatred? I never did anything to you, not that I could remember." Tom said. He was clearly irritated.

"You are really playing the innocent game with me? You and I both know you are nowhere near innocent." Harlene said quirking an eyebrowat him.

Tom looked away from her. Irritation boiled inside of him.

"See? you don't even deny that you are evil, Riddle." Harlene said.

"There is no such thing as good and evil Ms. Peverell. There is only power, and those who are too weak to seek it." Tom looked back at her, his eyes were dark. His usual good boy demeanor gone, replaced by the dark aura he have had emitted in the future.

"Power isn't something you seek, Riddle. If you are worthy it seeks you. Only the weak seeks power. They run after it but are never able to catch it." Harlene said with a hard expression.

Tom's eyes widened at that. He had nothing else to reply. He stood there as she took her bag and left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Sorry for the late update everyone. I had few family problems. Well, I got some questions for my readers. Let's see if you can answer those questions ;)  
> 1\. Why do you think Death turned Harry into a girl?  
> 2\. Why does Harlene refer Harry as third person?  
> 3\. Why do you think Tom felt relief when Harlene said that she hated Snape?  
> Answer these questions my awesome readers. Let's see how much your imagination matches with mine.  
> :) :)


	7. I'm Going To Make You Bend And Break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got the name of this chapter from the song 'Thanks for the memories' by Fall Out Boy.  
> Disclaimer: I absolutely do not own Harry Potter.

The next day, when Harlene sat down on the Great Hall for breakfast, she couldn't but notice the grave look on a certain Slytherin. Tom was sitting on his usual place on the Slytherin table with his underlings. He seemed to have a very angry look on his face.

'Riddle seems to have a very bad mood today.' Catalina said to Harlene, seeing she was looking at him.

'Hmm. Wonder why?' Harlene averted her eyes from him, trying to sound nonchalant about it. But she very well knew why he was like this.

'Maybe it is his time of the month.' Catalina said, while adding butter on her bread.

Harlene was about to put a piece of egg on her mouth but she stopped in midair,

'Huh? "His time of the month"? What is he a werewolf or something?' Harlene asked her eyes wide with surprise.

'No, I meant as menstrual cycle.' Catalina said with a matter of fact tone.

Harlene chocked on her saliva. She had burst out laughing on that.

'Menstrual….hahahah..ahaha.' She was laughing so hard that several heads on their table turned towards her in curiosity.

'Ahaha….good one, Cat.' She said after calming down

Catalina just smiled a bit. Her face had turned a bit pink on the complement. She was shy.

.

Tom noticed her laughter from the other side of the table. At that moment he was having various kind of feeling. He felt angry that she was laughing after she had insulted him. No one could get away after insulting him. He felt surprised. That was the first in three weeks he saw her laughing. Her laugh had a very pleasant sound like birds chime. He felt irritated that she was so close with that McMillan girl, while he didn't know anything about her at all. Wait why was he irritated about that?

'The Peverell girl seems to be very close with the McMillan.' Abaraxus said from beside him.

Tom didn't reply anything. He was irritated enough already, he didn't need someone else to make the irritation grow. Suddenly a thought came into his mind.

Hmmm….maybe then I will be able to know her secrets and ease mind. So I can concentrate on other matters.

'Malfoy, I have job for you.' Tom said to the blond aristocrat beside him.

* * *

 

Harlene and Catalina were coming out of the potions class after it had ended. Harlene was a bit exhausted. Turned out she had managed to catch Slughorns eyes even in this era. He was extremely impressed how she had managed to make the perfect Draught of Living Dead.

At first he had thought that Tom had helped her in making the potion. But later Tom had confirmed that she did all the work on her own. And now he wanted her to join the 'Slug Club'

_"Oh, joy.!"_

'You are very lucky you know that.' Catalina said in her dreamy 'Luna Lovegood' voice.

'Really? I don't feel lucky. What makes you that I am?' Harlene made a face.

'You have become a part of Professor Slughorn's favorite students. He usually prefers the students with high blood status like Malfoy or brilliant students like Riddle.'

Harlene grimaced at Tom's name. At that very moment Tom crossed them in a quick pace.

_"Speak of the devil and the devil appears."_

'I don't have any high blood status.' _At least not in this time._  Harlene said the last part in her mind.

'But you are brilliant in potions.' Catalina said to her, while they walk towards the Defense Against Dark Arts class.

'So are you.' Harlene rolled her eyes at her. Catalina was very good in potions, not as good as Tom,but good enough to catch Slughorn's eyes. She was also part of the Slug Club.

'Yeah.' She didn't sound too confident about that. 'Anyway now that you are part of the Slug Club, you will probably be invited in his next dinner party.'

'Oh yeah, right.' Harlene didn't sound very confident.

'Maybe this time I won't feel too lonely. You will be there.' Catalina smiled at her. Harlene couldn't help but smile. She really liked this shy girl.

The two girls settled down in the DADA classroom. They were going share the class with the Gryffindor. Their DADA teacher Professor Andrew Selvig was a middle aged man with a pair of oval glasses. He had a very high pitch voice that can put even a raven to shame.

'All right class today we are going to use nonverbal spells in duel. Everyone make a pair with the other house. That's it.'

Harlene paired up with a black haired boy from Gryffindor. He looked very familiar to Harlene.

_"Where have I seen him before?"_

'On the count of three disarm your opponent. 1….2…..3' Professor Selvig told them.

On the count of three the room became bright with flashes of light. Everyone was trying to disarm their opponent.

Harlene looked at her opponent, waiting for him to make the first move. He looked back at her for a second then shot sparks of golden light at her. The Disarming Spell.

Harlene flicked her wand and disabled the spell. Then he send another spell at her, which she dodged by diving on her left. In her mind she was thinking about her time in the war, where Deatheaters were shooting spell at her, not a student, and they were shooting Killing curses not Disarming spell.

Harlene flipped on her hands as she dived, her long black hair flew with her moves, and her robe was flying like bat. She jumped at her feet and thought EXPELLIARMUS in her mind. Golden light shoot from her wand and hit his hand. Harlene saw his wand flying out of his hand, and with her incredible seeker's ability caught the wand with her free hand.

The Geyffindor boy was dumbfounded. He lost before he could even understand anything.

'Excellent! That was incredible! Now let's try some spells as well.' Professor Selvig exclaimed. 'Everyone pair up with the person on your left and …Start.'

Harlene tuned to her left to find none other than Tom Riddle. Harlene rolled her eyes.

They bowed to each other. Harry didn't want to bow before Voldemort in the graveyard. But Harlene found it not very hard to do. She was worried about another reason. Their wands.

Tom made no move towards her. Harlene realized that she would have to be on the offensive side now.

She took a stance and waved her wand at him, sending the Stunning spell. He lazily flicked his wand, disabling the spell. But that was merely a distraction, while Harlene send another more powerful curse at him, which he managed to dodge only by jumping out of its way.

Then it was his turn to strike back. He shot a jet of red sparks at her. Harlene disabled the spell with a swish of her wand. Before she could do anything another shot hit her, causing her to fly across the room. She flipped in the midair and landed swiftly on the floor. Her breath caught on her throat, her ears were ringing. But she quickly stood up on her feet. She looked at him, and saw the smirk on his face. Suddenly she felt a gush of anger inside of her. She took her wand and waved it around her head once. Tom saw her movement and waved his own wand. Both the witch and wizard sent the curse at the same time.

Tom's red sparks met with Harlene's purple one in the midair, and suddenly Tom's wand was vibrating as though an electric charge were surrounding it, his hand seized up around it; he couldn't have released it if he'd wanted to, and a narrow beam of light connect the two wand, neither purple nor red, but bight, deep gold. Tom, following the beam with his astonished gaze, saw that Harlene's hand was griping her wand that was shaking and vibrating. Her face was scrunched up in determination.

With utter horror, Tom watched as a jet of red spark shot out of his wand. The spark turned into a ball of red light and hovered between them, followed by another spark of red light. His wand kept reshooting the curses that he had used before.

Harlene looked around and saw the horrified faces of the other students. Suddenly she realized what was happening. Before things could get more haywire she used all the strength in her body and pulled her wand, breaking the bond between the two wands. As soon she did that the beam of light disappeared, along with the balls of lights which was shot out of Tom Riddle's wand.

Harlene stood there, her hands lowered, panting slightly. A thin line of sweat was coming down on her face, other than that she looked calm. While on the other hand Tom was panting heavily. He was sweating a lot, and he had a dark look on his, his eyes never left Harlene's.

Everyone in the class was staring at them in a rapt attention. Even Professor Selvig was watching them with wide eyes, unable to understand what happened.

At that very moment the bell rang, startling everyone in the room. Everyone started to move to gather their belongings, but Tom and Harlene's battle still lingered as their gossip topic.

'Class is dismissed everyone.' Professor Selvig said in his high pitched voice. He still looked a bit shaken up about the incident.

Harlene hurriedly gathered her things and got out of the room, without talking to anyone.

Way to go Harlene. So much for laying low. Now the whole school will know about the twin wands, and soon Dumbledore. It won't take him too long to find out the truth. Ugh!

'Hey! Wait up'

Harlene came to a sudden halt. She closed her eyes before turning back to face a certain Slytherine devil. But instead she was greeted with red and gold, rather than black and green. The boy she had duell before was running towards her. He stopped in front of her. He had messy raven hair and hazel eyes. He looked very familiar to Harlene. But she couldn't remember where she had met him before.

'Can I help you with something?' Harlene said while adjusting her bag on her shoulder.

'Actually I just wanted to say, nice job at kicking Riddle's ass.' the boy said with a smile.

'Mmmm thanks. Although I'm not sure I can say I kicked his ass.' Harlene said in a bored voice.

'Of course you can. The look on his face was priceless when you beat him. ' The messy haired Gryffindor boy said.

'That's coming from the person who lost in his own duell.' Harlene sarcastically said. She had smirk on her face.

'Hey I lost in a fair battle. You are strong you know.' He said while holding up his hands in surrender.

'Thanks. You are not bad yourself.' Harlene gave him a genuine smile. But her smile faltered a bit as she saw Tom Riddle crossing them. His face was passive but his eyes had a cold look. He didn't even looked at them. But he frowned slightly seeing her talking to the Gryffindor boy. Slightly.

'I'm Harlene by the way. Harlene Peverell.' She said while holding her hand toward him. He took her hand and shook it.

'Charlus, Charlus Potter.'

* * *

 

Harlene walked towards the Slytherine common room. She had a stunned look on her face.

_"Holy shit! I just met my grandfather! And I had a duell with him!"_

Harlene wasn't looking where she was goning. She didn't even noticed the boy standing in front of the Slytherin common room.

'Ummph.' Harlene bumped onto the boy's back on her way. She stumbled backward, caught herself before falling down on her ass. 'Shit!'

'I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were coming from there.' A pale faced Gryffindor boy told her. He was standing in front of the Slytherin common room. He was probably a fifth year.

'Well you should. That is the way to get here.' Harlene said with undisguised irritation.

'S-sorry.' The boy stammered, clearly afraid of the female Slytherin. Harlene seemed to realize that, and regretted immediately for scaring the younger student.

'It's alright. Why are you here anyway?' She said with a calmer voice.

'Professor Dumbledore sent me here to tell you to meet with him after lunch in his office. He would like to talk to you.' The boy told her hurriedly. Harlene frowned at that.

_"Oh Great!"_

As much she rejoiced seeing her former Headmaster ….sorry Harry's former Headmaster, right now she would like nothing but to avoid meeting with him, but looked like that won't be happening.

'Thank you.' Harlene said with a grim face. The boy gave her short nod and scrammed away from there.

Harlene scowled and went inside of the common room. She didnt even notice that a shadow disappeared from the corner, a silhouette of a male.

After lunch Harlene walked toward the Transfiguration room to meet with Dumbledore. She took a deep breath before knocking thrice on the door.

* * *

 

'Come in.' Dumbledore's voice came through the door. Harlene opened the door and walked inside the room. The room was full of different kind of magical artifact much like the room he had in the future. Dumbledore was sitting on the table, reading some magazine.

'Ah, Ms. Peverell. You have come just in time. I was just reading some magazines on the muggle game called football. It appears that this game of football is quiet interesting. Have you ever been to one?' Dumbledore said to her in an amazed voice.

_"Same as always."_

Harlene sighed inwardly, but kept a passive face. 'No sir, I have never been to see one.'

'Oh, that is sad.' Dumbledore closed the magazine and looked at Harlene, who was standing in the middle of the room.

'Please, sit down Ms. Peverell.' Harlene sat down on the chair in front of the table. 'So Ms. Peverell, tell me how have you doing?'

'Um…' Harlene trailed off, not sure what to answer. 'Well it's been interesting.' Trying not to lie to him, and tell him as much truth as she could.

'I hope everything is alright.' Dumbledore said in a concerned voice.

'Yes, yes everything is fine. But…um… ..I'm a little confused.' Harlene said with a confused expression on her face.

'About what?' Dumbledore asked her.

'Why are you showing such interest in me? No offence but do you call all your students and ask about their wellbeing or am I just an exception?' Harlene said in furrowed eyebrows.

'Well Ms. Peverell, you are an exception. After all you are the first transfer student in almost two centuries.' He said to her.

He was looking at her through his halfmoon spectacles, with his piercing blue eyes. Those eyes could see through anyone's soul. But Harelene didn't flinch and kept herself passive. Her Slytherin mode had kicked in. She won't slip away anything.

'Well there hasn't been a war in two centuries. Has there?' Harlene said to him in a matteroffact tone.

'No, there hasn't been.' ' Dumbledore said with a smile.

'I'm guessing that is not the only reason for you to call me here then.' Harlene commented.

Dumbledore's eyebrows had quirked up at that comment. He had an amused look on his face.

_"Very intelligent and brave. But cunning as well. A true Slytherine."_

He decided to tell her the reason. Only a little though.

'You are right Ms. Peverell. I didn't call you here just to hear about your wellbeing. There is another reason to call you here.' He said after a pause.

_"Oh God! He is going to ask me about the incident in the DADA class. You are an idiot Harlene. Why can't you avoid trouble or in this case Riddle?"_

'I believe Grindewald might come after you.' ' Dumbledore said, breaking Harlene's chain of thopughts.

Harlene blinked at him. She was not expecting him to say something like this. She wondered if she had imagined it

'I'm sorry what?' Harlene asked him.

'I believe Grindewald might come after you.' He repeated. His face was serious. There was no trace of amusement like it held a moment ago.

_"Great! One Dark Lord wasn't enough now another one is after me."_

'Wh-why do think that?' Harlene said in a panicked voice. The last thing she needed was another Dark Lord to try to kill her. Why couldn't she have one peaceful school year?

'He had already come after you before. It is a matter of time that he does it again.' He said with a grim voice.

'But he came after my guardian, Olivia; not me.' Harlene said. Her panic was rising with each moment.

'I don't think that it was your guardian who he targeted. I think he was targeting you.'

'Why would he target me? I'm just a seventeen years old. I don't pose any threat to him.' Her voice was shrieking with panic now.

'You are off age Ms. Peverell. And beside age hardly matters.' ' Dumbledore said in a grave voice.

_"He was right on that. Otherwise why would Voldemort try to kill a fifteen months infant? Oh right cause he was a psycho."_

'And as for your first question, the answer is because you are a Peverell. The last Peverell alive.' ' Dumbledore said to her after a while.

Suddenly it dawned to her what was happening. Death had kept her origin right to give her a false identity. But it appeared that the plan had backfired on Harlene.

But how could Grindewald know that a Peverell has resurfaced. He couldn't have known. After all Harlene had lied to Dumbledore about Grindewald targeting them. Unless….

Dumbledore watched carefully as the young witch in front of him tried to digest the information. He noticed every emotion that flashed across her face. Anger, confusion, panic and realization.

'What does anything have to do with me being a Peverell?' Harlene said with a surprisingly calm voice. After understanding the situation correctly she was in her game now. She will not give Dumbledore what he wanted, and what he wanted was information.

Harlene realized that there was no way that Grindewald knew about her, as there was a very few people recognized the tittle Peverell. And those people were only Dumbledore and Catalina.

So Grindewald couldn't have known about her. Could he? So obviously Dumbledore was trying to gather information about her as he recognized the tittle.

'You see Ms. Peverell you are from a very ancient family which disappeared from the history centuries ago.' Dumbledore told her. 'The Peverell family was a very powerful wizarding family. They were known to be in possession of some very powerful objects. Those objects were told to be gifts from Death itself.'

'I'm sorry, did you say Death?' Harlene said trying to sound shocked.

'Yes, Death. People believed that the three Pevereel brothers met Death and received gifts from it for their cunning plans. Those gifts were passed down by the family for generation. Grindewald have been trying to find this objects for a long time. As he has found out there is a living Peverell he will try to take those objects from that person, which you is.'

Harlene gulped at that information. She didn't expect Dumbledore to tell her everything as he always was a bit secretive in the future regarding her matter….I mean Harry's matter.

'But I don't have any spectacularly powerful magical centuries old object.' She said to him.

'Maybe but he seems to think you have, that's why he attacked you and your guardian.' Dumbledore said with a finger pointing at her.

Harlene sighed. She knew that Dumbledore was right in some perspective. But he was wrong to think that Grindewald was on her tail. That was just a lie she came up with. There really was no danger at the moment. But she had to remain caution from now on.

'What are these objects anyway?' Harlene asked Dumbledore after a while.

Dumbledore kept quiet for a while, staring right at her eyes, as if he was trying to read her mind. After a long pause he spoke,

'The Deathly Hallows.'

* * *

 

Tom was sitting on a comfortable couch in the Slytherin common room. He had a book on his hand, which he was hardly reading. He was thinking about the incident in the DADA class. About how his wand had reacted when his curse met with Harlene's. He remembered the nonchalant look on her face as if she was aware of what might happen if his curse met with her own. He ran his hand in his hair in frustration, which ironically came right back in its perfectly combed state. He didn't know anything about this girl but she seemed to know a lot him.

He had other things to concentrate but he just couldn't take his mind off of her. It looked like she was an irritating pest that just couldn't be exterminated.

At that moment Abarxus Malfoy came through the dungeon and sat beside him. He had a weird look on his face. Tom looked at him and asked,

'Well, what did you find out?' his voice was calm for his inner turmoil.

'Dumbledore called her in his office to discuss about some matter.' He replied to him.

'Did you find out what he wanted to discuss with her?' Tom asked him with a same calm voice.

'It had to do with the Peverell family. I couldn't hear everything but as much I have, I can tell one thing The Peverell family used to be a very powerful family according to Dumbledore. This family disappeared from the history centuries ago, which is why people have forgotten about them.'

'Hmm. Is that all you could find out?' Tom asked him. He was no longer looking at Abarxus.

'That's all I could I hear.' Abarxus said to him. He was a little afraid that Tom might get mad about it and will Crucio him.

'Alright then. Try to find more about the Peverell family. I want to know as much as possible about the Peverell family.' He said to him.

'Okay I will try to find out more about them in my family library.' With that he left Tom.

Tom looked at the fireplace beside him. His chin rested in his palm. His eyes glistened with the reflection of the fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Sorry for the late update. My university class has started so it will be a little difficult for me to update on time. But dont worry I wont drop the fic. I will finish it. But it will take time.  
> I am taking a bit time to get Tom and Harlene to fall in love because I dont want them to be on top of each other at the very beginning. I want to savor it as much as I can. I want to bring depth to the fic.  
> Also this chapter has not been proofread.


	8. So wake up your sleeping heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note:The name of this chapter is from the song 'Wake up' by The Vamps.  
> In this chapter our protagonist will finally "wake up". So hope you all enjoy this chapter. Also my beta is back. So this chapter has been proofread. Yeepeee!  
> Disclaimer:I do not own Harry Potter. I only own Harlene Peverell. ;)

Harlene was sitting on her bed, head rested on the bed spread, eyes staring up at the ceiling. She was thinking about the conversation she had with Dumbledore. She was trying hard to find a way to get out of this mess. But she was coming up with none. It had been almost three days since her little visit to Dumbledore's office I am in big trouble.

She absolutely had no idea how she could get out of the situation. She was in such a tight position. On one hand she had to handle the overgrowing interest of the teenage future Dark Lord while on the other she had to deal with the fact that the current Dark Lord might show interest in her.

She took hold of the pillow beside her and screamed in it. After screaming into it she put the pillow down.

_"That felt good."_

After a while she came out in the common room to find Catalina sitting on a couch beside the fireplace. She was writing something in a parchment.

"Hey Cat, what are doing?" Harlene asked her while sitting down on the couch beside her. Catalina looked up and gave her a smile.

"Nothing much I was just writing letter to my father. He was a little worried for not getting any letter from me after coming to Hogwarts." She said, still writing on the parchment.

"Hmm, okay." Harlene leaned back on the couch without saying anymore. She had a faint sad feeling in her chest. If only she also had someone to write to.

Harlene looked around and saw Tom sitting at the furthest corner of the common room with his admirers/ minions surrounding him. He was reading a book, hardly listening to anything what they were saying. Even though he was in the midst of so many people, he looked isolated.

"Alone amongst a crowd." Harlene muttered to herself.

"Hmm?" Catalina asked her, she had finished writing the letter and now she was putting it inside an envelope. "What did you say, Harlene?"

"Nothing, I was just talking to myself." Harlene told with a wave of her hand. "Are you done?"

"Yeah, just have to go to the Owlery and send the letter." Catalina said while getting up from the couch.

"Let's go. I'll come with you too." Harlene also got up and left the common room with Catalina.

Tom watched them as they walked out of the common room. His expression blank.

* * *

 

The room was huge and dark. It only held a single chair at the other side of the room and a fireplace at the far end of the room. It was a throne room. A man with silvery­blonde hair was sitting on the chair.

The man was wearing a silver cloak that complimented his hair quiet well. His face was half hidden in the dark. Only his blue eyes could be seen in the darkness of the room. His eyes were fixed on the space. He was holding the Elder wand in his hand.

A middle aged man opened the large door of the room and walked inside. He had brown hair which was combed perfectly. His brown eyes were glistening with the excitement of the recently found information.

"My Lord." The man said after coming to halt in front of the silver haired man. "My Lord, there has been news, news about a Peverell resurfacing."

The silver haired man's head shot up, his attention suddenly directed at him. His blue eyes were wide with surprise.

_"How could this be? After all those years of searching…"_

"Are you absolutely sure?" The silver haired man asked. His voice was barely audible. He stood up from his chair and walked towards the only window in the room. He stopped in front of it and looked outside. The Black Forest of Germany was hardly visible under the night sky.

"Yes, my Lord. My daughter sent me a letter telling me about her. Her name is Harelene Peverell. She is with her in the seventh year in Hogwarts. She transferred to Hogwarts this year. My daughter informed me that she had escaped from Germany when her guardian was killed. Also that she had no idea about her heritage before arriving in London."

"Hmm, but that doesn't mean that we should leave her alone on her own, when she is so valuable." The silver haired man turned around from the window. He walked towards the man and said, "Good job, Lionel. Your daughter is doing a very good job of being a spy in Hogwarts. She should be rewarded."

He came to halt in front of the man. He was taller than the brown haired man. The dim light of the fireplace fell onto his face, showing the handsome features of his face. He had a steep nose and a strong clean shaven jaw line. He had thin lips that were quirked up in an evil grin. His silvery­blonde hair was perfectly combed coming to a rest on the nape of his neck. The man did not seemed to be older than twenty.

"But first we should pay a little visit to London to find out more about Ms. Harlene Peverell." The silver haired man said in an excited voice. His eyes held a mad look.

* * *

 

It was midnight at Hogwarts. After a long tiring day, Harlene was sleeping in her bed in the Slytherin common room. Again she was having the dream. She was having the dream from a third persons view as usual.

Voldemort had raised his wand. His head was still tilted to one side, like a curious child, wondering what would happen if he proceeded. Harry looked back into the red eyes, and wanted it to happen now, quickly, while he could still stand, before he lost control, before fear betrayed him­

Suddenly a pain shot through Harlene at her lower abdomen. Almost blurring her vision of the dream she was having. When her vision became right again she was no longer seeing the dream from the third person's view anymore. She was looking at Voldemort. She was Harry.

No, she wasn't anyone else she was Harlene a.k.a. Harly Potter, the Girl­who­lived.

She saw the mouth move and a flash of green light coming at her from his wand­

"Ahhhh!" Harlene shot up on her bed. She was sweating from her head to toe, panting heavily. She gulped a little to calm herself. After a few deep breaths she finally calmed down. Then she noticed the slight pain in her lower abdomen and warm tickling feeling in her inner thigh. She sighed heavily.

_"Oh! it couldn't have a better timing."_

Harlene got up from the bed; she took out a small packet from her trunk and made her way to the bathroom.

She took a tampon out of the packet and applied it. She sighed after she was done.

If she remembered correctly her last period happened when she was with Hermione and Ron at Shell Cottage. She sighed again at that thought. She missed her friends. She sunk down by the bathroom door and buried her face in her hands.

_"I miss you all."_

* * *

 

October brought chilly wind along. The weather had become rather cold, indication that winter was approaching.

It was Sunday morning at Hogwarts and Harlene was strolling by the Black Lake. Her arms were folded on top of her stomach as she made her way beside the Lake. She had a faraway look on her eyes. Her hair was untied, making a halo behind her. Her navy blue dress was brushing on top her thigh as she walked.

A shadow of a man was following Haelene's every step. The boy followed her not from too far, hiding behind a tree or a rock if she made a stop.

This went on for a while, but when the boy came out of his hiding place (a rock) Harlene had vanished from in front of him. She was just standing in front of the Forbidden Forest a second ago and now she was gone. The boy looked around in desperation. But she was nowhere in sight. He scratched his head in utter confusion thinking where she could have vanished.

.

Harlene was walking absentmindedly beside the Black Lake. Suddenly she had a feeling that someone was watching her. All her senses came to life instantly. Being a war veteran had enhanced her senses immensely. She could hear the faint sound of footsteps behind her

_"Judging by the amount of pressure on the feet, the person is probably big."_

Harlene slowly released her magic and reached out to his powers. It wasn't as strong as Harlene's, rather it was very weak.

_"Not a strong opponent then."_

Harlene stopped in front of the Forbidden Forest; she could feel the other person had also stopped behind her. She turned slightly to see a black clothed figure was crouching behind a rock a few feet behind her. The person's body was fat thus the rock couldn't fully hide him. Harlene smirked at that.

_"I know who exactly that is."_

Harlne turned toward the Forbidden Forest after reeling back her magic and casted a wandless Disillusion Charm on herself. She then put a Silencing Charm and walked back behind her stalker.

She watched as the enormous boy came out from behind the rock and looked around to find her. She suppressed a smile as he scratched his head. She put of her charms and stood just behind the boy.

"Goyle" she suddenly piped up in a cheerful voice, making Goyle jump up in surprise. He turned to find Harlene standing behind him. She had a very sweet but dangerous smile on her face. He gulped at the sight of that smile. He remembered how she had dueled with Tom.

"Nice weather for a walk, isn't it?" Harlene said in a sweet but dangerous voice. Her eyes were fixed on Goyle's face, taking in every detail of his reaction.

"I didn't know you liked to take walk in the cold weather, Goyle." She took a step closer to him; she still had the smile on her face. Goyle unconsciously took a step back.

She let a small amount of her magic out and instantly got the result she was hoping for. Goyle shuddered when he felt the strong magical energy. He went pale.

"But that wasn't what you were doing, was it?" She said to him, taking a step toward him as he backed up against the rock. Her voice was filled with cold dripping danger.

"You were spying on me." Harlene said, narrowing her eyes. Goyle seemed to turn even paler then before.

"N-­no, I-­I …" He stammered at her. She gave him a toothy grin that was full of cold danger. She didn't have her wand in her hand but he could feel magic swelling inside of her.

"Oh you poor thing, don't be scared. I'm not going to hurt you." She said with a mock apologetic look on her face. Goyle sighed on relief on that statement.

"Not much." She said with the most evil gin she could muster. Goyle's eyes went as wide as saucers in fear. He couldn't stand there anymore. He scooted past Harlene and ran toward the castle.

Harlene watched as Goyle ran away from her in fear. She turned away from the castle and burst into laughter. She could hardly stand because of her laughter.

_"Oh, if only Ron and the twins could see this."_

When her laughter subsided, it dawned to her who could possibly put Goyle on watch duty. Anger boiled inside of her. She no longer had the smile on her face as it was scrunched up in ferocity. She turned around on her hills and stomped toward the castle to find the blue eyed devil.

* * *

 

Tom was sitting in the library. Reading about the topic that intrigued him before the raven headed girl arrived. He was studying about Horcruxes. He was sitting at the corner seat of the library, out of prying eyes and giggling girls.

Suddenly he noticed a figure standing in front of his table. He looked up to see the face of Harlene Peverell staring down at him. Her hands were on her hips. Her eyes were giving him a death glare. Judging by her demeanor he could guess what had happened.

"Can I help you with something, Ms. Peverell?" he said to her while looking down at his book.

"You can by stopping your cavalry from stalking me." Harlene replied sarcastically. She tilted her head a bit.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Ms. Peverell." Tom replied without glancing up from the book.

Harlene closed her eyes and exhaled an irritated sigh. She pulled the chair on the other side of the table and sat down on it. Tom quirked an eyebrow at her but didn't say anything. "You know exactly what I am talking about, Riddle. Goyle almost pissed in trousers this morning when I caught him."

Tom let out a frustrated sigh, his face scrunched up in irritation. That was only for a brief second, his face returned to his passive form, "I don't know why Goyle would follow you."

Harlene groaned in anger and said, "Oh please, Riddle let's just stop the chase. It would be better for both of us. I am getting tired of these…pesky stunts of yours. So tell me, Riddle. What. Do. You. Want?"

Tom stared at her for a long while and then gave her a sweet smile and said in a silky smooth voice, "Ms.. Peverell all I want from you is answers. That's not asking too much. But you were the one who made things sooo…difficult."

Harlene stared at his face for a while. After a long stare off between them Harlene spoke, "Fine I will answer all your questions but after that you will call off your circus troop."

Tom didn't reply anything just held up his hands in submission. Harlene took a deep breath and said. "Ask away and find out what you want to know."

"I will but not here. There are too many people here." Tom stood up from the chair and put the book in his bag. "If you will kindly follow me, Ms. Peverell"

Harlene followed him out of the library, but they were not heading for the common room. Tom took a different path. He went to seventh floor in the left corridor of the Hogwarts castle. He went toward the opposite direction of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls how to dance ballet.

_"He is going to the Room of Requirement."_

Harlene followed him without saying anything. He stopped in front of the wall opposite of the tapestry and paced three times in front of it.

_"I need a place where two people can talk without being interrupted."_

A door formed on the wall. Tom opened the door and held it while Harlerne walked inside. He closed the door behind him as he entered after her. The room they entered was small but cozy. It was dimly lit. There were two comfortable looking high backed chairs sitting in front of the burning fireplace facing each other. There was even a tea table beside the chairs.

Harlene was staring at the room, so Tom spoke up from beside her, "This is the Room of Requirement. You can make this room turn into anything you want. All you have to do is ask."

Harlene shot him a sideway glance to show that she had understood him. Tom waved his hands forward toward the chairs. She walked toward the fireplace and sat at one of the chairs. Tom sat on opposite side of her, crossing his legs and putting his elbows on the hands of the chair.

"So what do you want to know?" Harlene asked after a while, looking at him with a passive face.

"First of all, who are you really?" Tom asked her tilting his head a bit. Harlene sighed at his question, she was dreading that he would ask this question.

"My name is Harlene. I am a Peverell. I am seventeen years old." Harlene told him with a calm tone.

"Is that all? That doesn't answer who you are." Tom frowned at her.

"That's all you need to know right now. In the future, if I think that you are trustworthy to know me I will tell you. Until then that is all I can say." Harlene told him without taking her eyes off of his face.

_"That will never happen. You can never know who I am for the sake of everyone's safety."_

Tom stared at her for a while then sighed and asked again, "What is your connection to Salazar Slytherin?" Harelen was surprised with that question.

"Wha­? I don't understand." She said with a confused tone. A deep frown appeared on her face.

"You are a parselmouth. Only those who are related to Salazar Slytherin can speak parseltongue." Tom stated forcibly.

"Um..I­.." Harlene closed her eyes for second. She stared at the fireplace after opening them with a frown on her face. "I don't know how I am related to him. All I know that I could speak this language from childhood. I was eleven when I first discovered that I could speak with snakes." She told him and added in a nonchalant voice. "Also that day I let loose a Boa Constrictor in the zoo."

Harlene grimaced at that memory. Tom frowned at her. She rolled her eyes and said, "Accidental magic."

Tom nodded in a knowing manner and then asked in a hushed voice, "So you are not related to Salazar Slytherin?"

There was a slight sadness lingering at his voice. Most people wouldn't have noticed it but Harlene did. She didn't make any comment on that because she knew he wouldn't appreciate it. She felt a little bad for the teen. She was related to Slytherin but she couldn't tell him that. At least not now.

"I didn't say that. I just said I don't know how I am related to him." Harlene told him twisting the truth a little bit.

"So does that mean that you are?" Tom said with furrowed eyebrows.

"I didn't say that" Harlene replied. "Look you said that only the descendants of Salazar Slytherin can speak parseltongue. All I know that I can speak the language. I don't know whether I am related to him or not.

Maybe I am, maybe I am not."

Tom made a grunting noise at that but didn't say anything on that matter anymore. "Alright forget that. I wish to know what the hell happened at the DADA class."

Harlene gave him a toothy grin at his question. "I thought you were never going ask. That was Priori Incantatem. You see, when I bought my wand from Ollivander's he told me something very interesting.

Harlene spoke as Tom listened to her with rapt attention. His pupil dilated with the excitement of new information.

"He told me about twin wands. Two wands with a same phoenix's feathers, they became brother and sister. I was very intrigued by the information so I found out more about those wands. You see, these wands are very powerful against different opponents but if they are turned against each other something very unique happens."

"They neutralize each other's curses, and if the will of one wielder is weaker than the other, the stronger one can overpower it and make it repeat its previous spells."

Harlene leaned back on her chair and smiled at a very shocked Tom, "That is exactly what happened in our case. My wand overpowered yours and made it redo its spells."

After a while Tom said with a hushed voice, "So you are saying that our wands are twins?"

Harlene nodded and said, "If you don't believe me, why don't you pull out your wand and see for yourself?"

Tom did as she told and gasped with surprise as his wand felt warmer in his hand. It was slightly vibrating, as if it was ecstatic. Harlene pulled her wand and something very unusual happened. The two wands vibrated and a strings of golden light erupted from them and joined. They became warmer but was pleasant. The wands were rejoicing there union.

At first Tom was horrified but soon a soothing feeling engulfed him. He realized it was coming from his wand. It was soothing its master. He saw Harlene smiling fondly at her wand.

After a while the golden string dissolved and the wands returned to their original warm feelings.

"So that's what happened." Tom muttered to himself eyeing his wand. "When did you realize that our wands were twins?" He looked up at Harlene who was watching him.

"On the first night here when you pulled out your wand. I felt my wand become warmer. I knew it right then that they were twin. That is why I said that I would not fight you."

Tom nodded, understanding everything now. He too had felt his wand become warmer but he didn't put much heed into it.

"Thank you, Ms. Peverell for the wonderful information. I hope in the future I can gain your trust so you will confide in me. Something tells me what you have told me now is unknown to Ms. McMillan. You haven't told her about all this."

Harlene shook her head knowing that it was useless to lie to him at this point.

At that moment Tom gave Harlene a genuine smile that caught her breath. Her heartbeat sped up at that. She tried gulp down the sensation.

"I hope we can become acquaintances if not friends." Tom told her with a smile. Harlene became surprised with that statement she never expected Tom Riddle to say something like this.

She couldn't reply verbally so she just nodded. Her heart was beating rapidly. Hands were becoming sweaty and a warm pleasant feeling were spreading in her chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Okayyyy a little late update. Sorry about that. Hope you all enjoyed it.  
> In this chapter a new character have appeared. Guess who this silver haired hunk is.


	9. The Devil Within

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: The name of this chapter is from "The devil within" by Digital Dagger.   
> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I wish I did. :(

After the confrontation with Tom, it had been uneventful for Harlene. Life here in Hogwarts had become quite mundane. But of course it could never last long.

Harlene was returning from Ancient Runes class. It turns out that if you were the mistress of Death you get instant knowledge in Runes.

She entered the common room to leave her bag in her room and then go down to have lunch after. She went straight to the adjoined bathroom to her room to freshen up, when suddenly she heard a click in her room. Instantly she pulled out her wand from the messy bun she had made with her hair.

She held her wand in front of her in a defensive mode and turned the knob of the bathroom door with the other hand. She quietly opened the door and peeked inside of the room.

At first there was nothing that could be seen. But Harlene's veteran eyes caught the blurry edges of a human figure. It was crouched up beside her bed where her school trunk was lying.

_"Someone is invisible here."_

Quietly Harlene entered the room but the figure heard her anyway. It shot up from its place. Harlene wouldn't be able to make out the movements if the figure hadn't shot curses at her.

The figure shot a stunning spell at her. Harlene jumped out of its way and aimed a spell of her own, but missed it as she could hardly make out the figure's movements.

The figure shot a full body bind curse at her which Harlene could only deflect by using the shield charm. But before Harlene could do anything else the figure used the single second window which was provided by Harlene's distraction, and fled from there through the door. Harlene hurriedly followed behind it but there was no one in the hallway. Even if there was anyone, Harlene could not see it.

Harlene stood in the hallway, her both hands were on her hip, hair lying on her back in a messy way. She sighed in frustration. But then angered boiled inside of her toward a certain Slytherin.

_"Ughhh! Riddle!"_

She stormed out in the common room in anger to find Tom. She passed Catalina on her way.

"Hey Harlene! Where have you been?" Catalina asked Harlene as she stormed passed her. But she was too pissed off to answer her.

She stormed out in the common room and saw Tom sitting at his usual couch; he hadn't gone to lunch yet. She walked towards him and stood in front of him, arms crossed on top of her chest.

Tom was reading a book, as usual. He didn't even notice the angry lioness that was walking towards him, not until she was standing right in front of him, arms crossed on top of her chest.

At first he noticed that someone was standing in front of him, he looked up to find a very angry Harlene Peverell. She was fuming in anger, ready to burst out because of him, at any moment. Tom wondered what happened now to make her so angry.

He quirked an eyebrow at her, she seemed to become even angrier at him. Her hair was loose on her shoulder, eyes were blood shot. She was breathing heavy in anger.

_"She can even put a dragon to shame."_

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Tom asked her nonchalantly. Harlene rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Why don't you tell me?" Harlene told him through gritted teeth.

_"What a surprise! No fire came out of her mouth."_

"I'm sorry?" Tom asked with furrowed eyebrows. He had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

"You may not be sorry now but you will be if you don't stop doing these things." Harlene spat at him.

"I absolutely have no idea what you are talking about?" Tom said. His patience was breaking with each passing seconds.

"Stop pretending, Riddle. You know exactly what I am talking about. I answered every question you had so why can't you just LEAVE ME ALONE?" Harlene yelled out at the end.

Tom closed his eyes and looked away in irritation; he was fighting very hard not to lash out on her. "Listen, Ms. Peverell…"

"No, you listen. I don't care even if you are the King of England. If you don't stop your minions from snooping around in my room not to mention attacking me, I will find you and I will skin you." Harlene snarled at him. Tom looked at her with wide eyes. Oh, he wasn't afraid more like he was shocked.

_"She is threatening me? Me?!"_

But before he could react to that he realized something else.

_"In her room? Attacked her? What is she talking about?"_

Without saying anything to Harlene Tom looked at the other students in the common room, whom were listening to their conversation in rapt attention.

"Leave us." Tom commanded to everyone in a booming voice. That was when Harlene realized that they were in the common room.

Everyone left the common room in a hurry. Tom's followers wanted to stay behind but a glare from Tom told them to leave immediately.

Catalina looked at Harlene if she should stay behind with her but Tom's raised eyebrow told her otherwise.

When the whole common room was empty Tom put his book down and stood up from his couch. When he spoke up his voice was as calm as before, the anger he was feeling at Harlene's threat had disappeared.

"Ms. Peverell I can assure you that after our little conversation I had called off every tail that I had set behind you." Tom realized that he was not the only one that was interested in her, there were others.

"Oh, really?" Harlene said with a sarcastic tone, she did not believe him.

"Yes, I am not lying to you." Tom said in a sincere voice. But Harlene grimaced at him.

"But you see, I can't really believe you." Harlene told him by tilting her head a little.

"It's up to you whether you want to believe it or not. But I am speaking the truth. I haven't told anyone to sneak into your room, and not to mention attack you. Never to attack you."

"Before, I only asked them to tail you so that I could know more about you. I don't have any reason to attack you, do I?" Tom tried to reason with her.

Harlene had calmed down a lot so she could see that he was speaking the truth. She frowned that she lashed out on him without even thinking about it properly. She averted her eyes from him tried to think this through. Her hands slid down from her hips as she thought this through.

Tom understood that she had calmed down and she had realized that he had no involvement on her attack. He put a hand on her shoulder and spoke in a soothing voice,

"Harlene, can you think of anyone that would try to harm you? Because I am worried, that if the person attacked you in your room then that means that he or she knows their way into the common room. They might be someone from inside the House. It can be very dangerous."

Tom's voice was full of worry for her, his face full of emotion. Harlene looked into his eyes. She was afraid about this unknown attacker. She didn't even notice the hand that was lying on her shoulder. She didn't even notice that he was calling her by her first name.

"I-­I don't know." Harlene's voice faltered a bit. "I couldn't see anything, as he was under a disillusionment charm. I could only see blurry edges of the figure."

"It's okay, don't worry we'll sort it out. Don't worry we will find out who this person is. I will help." Tom said in a sincere voice.

Harlene's eyes shot up at him in surprise. Was this really the infamous Tom Riddle speaking? He sounded so…concerned.

Harlene just nodded in response. Her heart had started to beat fast as she stared at those beautiful icy blue eyes and it had nothing to do with the attacker. Tom gave her a little smile.

Tom slid the hand down from her shoulder, making her feel a little uncomfortable without it. There was an awkward silence between them as they stood there.

"I am sorry." She said after a while in a small voice. Tom looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"About lashing out at you without thinking." She said with grimace. "I shouldn't have blamed you like that."

"Well, I can't really blame you, can I?" Tom said in a light voice. His hands were in his trousers' pocket.

An awkward silence washed over them again, which Tom broke by speaking up, "Well lunch had probably started. I am sure we can catch desert if we hurry up."

Harlene nodded her head at that. They stepped towards the common room door when Tom stopped in midstep. "Oh, Ms. Peverell why don't you go ahead. I have Arithmancy after lunch, and I have left the book at my room. I will just go and fetch it."

"Okay, then I will see you later." Harlene left Tom to retrieve his book.

.

Tom met with Abraxas on his way to the Great Hall. He was returning from lunch when he saw Tom coming towards the Hall.

"Riddle, what happened there?" Abraxas asked Tom as he closed in. Tom looked at him. He recalled what happened at the common room.

Slowly a smile crept on his face. There was a malicious glint in his eyes as he spoke,

"It appears that an excellent opportunity has…presented itself."

Tom said with a silky smooth voice to Abraxas, which brought a shudder down his spine.

* * *

 

Lionel McMillan walked towards the snowy white building. He didn't even look at the passing pedestrians as he and his companion made their way through Diagon Alley.

His companion's silver hair was a little longer than before. It was longer and also it wasn't backcombed anymore. A strand of silver hair fell on top his forehead. His pale blue eyes held a very slight dangerous glint. Gellert Grindelwald was after all, a very dangerous man.

The pair made their way to the bank of Gringotts. They came in front of an elderly goblin who was weighing gold coins. The goblin looked up at them from his work.

"We wish to speak with director of Gringotts. It's a matter of great urgency." Lord McMillan said in a booming voice.

The elderly goblin nodded in reply and left to fetch the director. He returned with another goblin that was slightly taller than him.

"I am Ragnok the fifth, the director of Gringotts. How may I help you?"The newcomer asked the two wizards in a raspy voice.

"Why don't we talk somewhere private?" Lord McMillan said, tilting his head. The goblin gave a short nod and took them to a chamber behind the front hall. It was a round chamber with a wooden table in the middle, the chamber was lit with torches hanging from the walls.

When they entered the chamber and closed the door behind them the goblin turned around to speak. But before he could say anything Lionel brought out his wand and used the imperious curse on the goblin. Instantly the goblin's eyes became hazy.

"Now, we may talk." Grindelwald spoke for the first time, as he settled down onto a chair. He crossed his legs and waited for the interrogation to start.

"Now Ragnok, tell us what you know about Ms. Harlene Peverell." Lionel asked the imperioed goblin as he paced in front of the goblin. "And tell us everything."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: This chapter is a bit short. sorry :(  
> But hope it won't disappoint any of you. Now quick quiz.  
> 1\. Who do you think the figure belonged to?  
> 2\. Does Tom had anything to do to it?  
> Enjoy :)  
> P.S. I used a line from Sherlock(BBC). Moriarty said it to Irene in front of Sherlock in the phone.  
> Guess which line is it? ;) :P


	10. Evil Angel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: This chapter's tittle is from the song "Evil Angel" by Breaking Benjamin.  
> Also this chapter is not betaed. It appears my beta is off the grid. So, sorry if there is (probably is) any mistake.

Over the next few days Harlene had been on her guard constantly. Mad­eye's words "Constant vigilance" was ringing in her ears all the time. But nothing happened after the attack. Everything returned to normal as if the attack never even happened.

Most of the students didn't realize her 'constant vigilance' mode except for those who knew. Whenever Tom and Harlene would cross path with each other they would give each other a silent nod, indicating that they had their eyes and ears open.

.

At the morning of Halloween something happened that surprised Harlene. A letter was delivered to her by a first year Slytherin when she was sitting by the Black Lake reading a book she had gotten from the library.

The first year gave her the letter in trembling hand and ran from there as soon as Harlene took the letter.

There was no name on the envelop. But the handwriting of the letter was all too familiar. Harlene read the letter with attention.

_Miss Peverel,_

  
_I know this is sudden to contact you through letter. But I think it is better to communicate this way so that your attacker doesn't realize about our allegiance. Until we can find out who your attacker is, I believe this means of communications is better._

_As for the reason of this letter, I believe rather than waiting for the person to attack, you should prepare yourself. I have seen you in duel. I am in no doubt that you can handle yourself. But sometimes to have the upper hand in a duel you must push your limits._

_There is a study group in Hogwarts, where we learn beyond our academic lessons. There you can lean a lot of things that they don't teach us in the academy and improve your skills._

_If you are interested then meet me in front of the Room of Requirement after the Halloween Feast. I am not saying you must join, just come and attend one meeting. If it doesn't interest you, you won't have to attend anymore._

_Yours most sincerely,_

_TMR_

_P.s. – Tap the wall with your wand three times in a triangle._

Harlene didn't understand how to react to the letter. She wondered whether it was an invitation to join the Death Eaters or not. Whatever the case it was a very tempting offer.

_"At least he didn't sign it as Lord Voldemort."_

Harlene thought to herself with a small smirk. Harlene knew that she would never join the Death Eaters even if it was the last thing in the world. But she could go and see what this was all about.

_I"'ll go for only one meeting and see what all this is about."_

Gellert Grindelwald's days were going rather well. He had found out that Hitler, his muggle puppet was doing rather well against the Allies. He had taken over France by now and moving forward toward middle Europe.

But what made his day was the discovery of the last Peverel. It shouldn't mean anything to him as he was already the most powerful wizard of the century by being the wielder of the Death Stick, but it was still a great privilege to find the last heir of the family that had a close encounter with Death itself. Also if she happened to be in the possession of anther hallow the better. Even without it, she would make a prized possession for him.

He sat at the MacMillan Manor in England, remembering what he had learnt from the Goblins of Gringotts the other day.

_**Miss Harlene Peverel, the last direct descendent of the Peverel's. Descendent of three noble families; Peverel, Slytherin and Griffindor.** _

_"She has a very rich blood indeed."_

**_Born on the day of Samhain. Father, a pureblood wizard while her mother was a muggleborn. Her magic is something a common wizard will consider Light, but in reality she has more silvery magical core then a pure white of a Light wizard. She is not Dark witch in any perspective. Her magical core is rather unique which cannot be defined._ **

_"She is getting more and more interesting each passing day."_

**_Her wand is made with holly wood and has a phoenix feather core. A very powerful wand with an unknown magic ridden inside of it._ **

'Ms. Harlene Peverel you will be an excellent possession when I acquire you. Your power is all alone magnificent enough. But I am still eager to meet you face to face, to put a face to the name.' Gellert laughed manically at that thought.

But his laughter died down as he remembered that she was under Dumbledore's protection. He grimaced thinking that Dumbledore had gotten to her before him. But no problem she will soon be his.

'But for that I shall have to wait for an opportunity. After all, all great things come to those who wait.' He smirked at that.

* * *

 

Harlene sat at the Slytherin table with Catalina on Halloween feast, laughing and eating the various sweet dishes that were in front of them at the table. Every once in a while Harlene would glance at Tom, who was sitting at the other end of the table. Catalina noticed this and asked her about it.

Harlene just shrugged and said, 'I am just trying to figure out if he was the one who had attacked me in my room.'

'You don't think it was him?' Catalina asked her with a surprised voice. She was staring at Harlene. She had stretched her hand to take more cauldron cake but she stopped at midair.

'I am not sure. I mean he doesn't have any reason to attack me.' " _At least not at this time."_

'I think Riddle is just evil and a sadist. Who knows why he does what he does? I mean he was interested in you before, right? As you didn't bother with him, he probably got angry and attacked you.' Catalina said while retrieving a cake to her plate. 'Simple as that. Who else other than him would have a motive to attack you?'

Harlene frowned at her statement. Catalina's sudden surprise at her previous statement didn't miss her eyes either.

_"Why is she trying so hard to prove that Riddle was the one behind my attack? And why did she react like that about what I said? Does she know something?"_

Harlene eyed the female Slytherin with suspicious eyes but she didn't say anything right then.

_"What are you hiding little snake?"_

Harlene decided to think about it later as she pushed the thought out of her mind; she had more important matter at hand.

* * *

 

After excusing herself from Catalina, saying she had to go to the library; Harlene came out of the Slytherin common room.

She walked toward the Room of Requirement when she came across Slughorn. He was delighted to see his new found Potion prodigy.

'Ah, Ms. Peverel. What a surprise to see you! Out for a night walk are we?' He said in a delighted voice.

'Yes, professor.' Harlene said with a forced smile on her face.

'Very nice, very nice. But before you go I should tell you that every other week I held a small dinner party at my office. I will be delighted if such a young potion genius such as you come and join me.' Slughorn told her.

_"Oh God!"_

Harlene tried to find any excuse to not go to the dinner party but she was coming up with nothing.

'I…will be delighted to come, professor.' She finally said after failing to come up with a valid excuse.

'That is wonderful. I will let you know about the date and time, my dear.' Slughorn said in delighted voice.

'Thank you, professor.'

'Well, I wouldn't make stand here anymore and leave you to your night stroll.'

With that a very happy looking Slughorn left. Harlene sighed watching his retrieving form.

_"I miss my Invisibility cloak."_

Suddenly an idea came to her mind. But she wasn't sure how she should call it. Harlene turned her head up ward and said in a clear voice, 'Death.'

Nothing happened at first, so she called out again in a higher voice, 'Death.'

Suddenly light breeze grazed her face, blowing her ponytail and strands of hair that was lying beside her cheeks. Harlene felt a presence behind her as soon as the wind stopped.

She spuned on her heels to find the dark hooded figure of Death. It had its scythe in its pale boney hand, face hidden behind the hood.

'Mistress called?' Death said in its metallic voice with a slight bow of its head.

'Yes, I did.' Harlene said after getting over the shock. 'I wanted to ask if I could have my Invisibility cloak. So, can I?'

Death didn't answer at once, but after a while it said, 'Of course, it is mistress's after all. I only kept it with me so mistress can have it in the time of her need.'

With that Death raised its empty right hand, making a curtain with the sleeve and brought out its other hand leaving the scythe standing on its own on the floor; it pointed its index figure of the left hand and ran it horizontally trough the fabric of the sleeve, cutting the fabric in its trail.

After finishing up, Death held out the silky silvery cloak with two hands and presented to a wide eyed Harlene in a respectful bow. Harlene took the cloak from Death's hands and felt the familiar fabric of the cloak. She looked up and said, 'Thank you.'

Death did another bow and took the scythe from the floor. It glided backward into the darkness and vanished. Harlene stared at the place where it had vanished for a moment and then pulled the cloak on her head.

* * *

 

Harlene walked silently until she reached the seventh floor. She stopped in front of the wall where the door of the Room of Requirement should be and pulled out her wand and tapped the wall three times with her wand in a triangle.

At first she didn't understand what Tom meant by it but she understood it as soon as she saw the wall. Harlene watched as the wall turned into a big wooden door.

She inhaled a long breath and pulled the handle to reveal a large room filled with people. The room resembled a lot of the room which Harlene used for DA meetings.

Harlene watched as Tom walked toward her. He wasn't wearing his school rob and vest and had also taken off his tie. He had folded the sleeves of his white school shirt and unbuttoned the upper button of his collar.

Harlene's breath caught on her throat as she saw him. She quickly looked away from collar bone skin before he could notice her staring there.

_"Why am I reacting like this? What is wrong with me?"_

'Ms. Peverel, glad you can join us.' He said to her when he reached her standing at the door.

'Well your letter was very persuasive.' Harlene rolled her eyes at him. 'You stand with what you said, right; that I will not have to come here again if I don't like it?'

Tom looked at her for a moment before answering, 'If you don't find it interesting then yes, you will not have to come here again. You have my word.'

'And I will not have to take part in any torture activities.' Harlene stated forcefully to Tom.

'Now, now Ms. Peverel what kind of meeting do you think this is? This is merely a study group not some kind of mob gang.' Tom said to her.

Harlene only just quirked an eyebrow and walked into the room with Tom trailing behind her. Everyone in the room stopped whatever they were doing and looked at them.

Harlene stopped in the middle of the room. She smirked seeing some death glares that were being sent toward her. Tom walked passed her and addressed everyone in the room.

'Fellows let me introduce you to our guest Ms. Harlene Peverel. She has come here on my request to see if she can learn something other then what they teach us here. So I hope everyone will co­operate with her.' Tom said the last part eyeing the females that were shooting glares at her. He shot them a warning glare. 'So let's begin today's meeting.' Tom said and walked at the other side of the room.

'Today we would duel with each other. It is very essential for a wizard to learn how to duel.' Tom said to everyone in the room and addressed Harlene, 'Ms. Peverel if you wouldn't mind, would you duel with one of them and show some of your skills in dueling?'

Harlene shrugged and pulled out her wand, and went to stand a few steps ahead. Tom gestured Abraxas to take his place as her opponent. He nodded and went ahead to stand in two feet away from her, others stepped back toward the wall.

'Duelers, wands ready.' Tom's voice boomed around the room.

Harlene and Abraxas put up their wand in front of their face in a respectful manner. Abraxas winked at her from behind the wand causing Harlene to narrow her eyes at him.

They put down there wands and turned around to walk few steps behind, they turned back and pointed their wands at each other, ready to fight.

'On the count of three; one. Two…Three.' As soon as Tom finished counting Abraxas shot a stunning spell at Harlene which she deflected very smoothly with just simple flick of her wand.

Remember how you fought at the war against the Death Eaters, Harlene.

Abraxas shot another curse at her but she just stepped aside and let the curse fly right passed her shoulder. Tom raised his eyebrows at that.

_"She didn't even flinch when the curse flew right below her ear!"_

Tom took a good look at Harlene and he was surprised at what he had found. Her face was scrunched up in concentration. She looked like a predator, ready to pounce at her pry.

_"She is in battle mode! Her magic seemed to be radiating from her!"_

Tom thought as he watched Harlene dodge Abraxas's spells with such grace. His heart sped up as he watched their battle, more precisely as he watched her in battle.

_"Malfoy doesn't even stand a chance against her."_

Tom chuckled at that. Oh, how much he wanted her to be in his possession. He felt ecstatic watching her.

Harlene fought with Abraxas with ferocity, Harlene let him make his moves first but after that she cornered him with her counter attacks.

Abraxas was cornered as Harlene shot curses after curses at him. He was hardly able to dodge her curses, and it was making him frustrated to no end. In his frustration he shot a curse at that Harlene couldn't identify. She deflected it with a flick of her wand but a thin thread of the curse grazed the skin on her upper palm, turning the skin black and lifeless. Shock shot across her face, but only for a second as she recovered and shot back spells at him.

Tom's eyes narrowed down as he recognized the curse, he fumed in anger. No one harms what was HIS.

She didn't let Abraxas make another move after that as she shot curses of her own, making him back down. With another swift movement of her wand she sent him flying backward, his wand flying out of his hand toward Harlene, which she caught very easily.

The whole room was silent as the duel ended. The scenery was astounding; Abraxas was lying on his back on the ground while Harlene was standing several feet away from with two wands in her each hands.

After a long pause Tom exclaimed from where he stood, 'Excellent! Now that is what a duel looks like!'

'But I can assure you one thing a battle won't be a same thing as a duel.' Tom's voice grim like. 'In a battle won't be subtle or respectful. So you should be prepared for that.'

Tom walked toward where Harlene was standing with two wands. 'Ms. Peverel here has an excellent reflex, which is a great advantage in a battle field.'

He took Abraxas's wand from Harlene's hand, brushing his figure while taking it which shot jolts of electricity through her. But he didn't notice anything; he threw the wand at Abraxas who was still sitting on the floor where he had landed.

'Malfoy you use your wand too much. Think with your head not with your wand. You attacked Ms. Peverel at first chance; surprise attack is good only if your opponent is unprepared. If you attack without a strategy it becomes easy for a strong opponent as Ms. Peverel to slaughter you.'

Harlene watched in admiration as Tom analyzed the duel. He was a charismatic leader, drawing everyone's attention toward him within a second. Now she understood why he could draw so many followers.

'Also your defense is very weak; you have to work on your defense. As soon as Ms. Peverel started to attack you couldn't even protect yourself.' Tom said to Abraxas who was listening to every word without any protest.

'And Ms. Peverel.' Tom addressed Harlene, who was watching his every movement with rapt attention. 'Your dueling skill is very good; especially your defense skill is excellent. But I believe you can become an even better dueler if your offensive skills are more sharpened'

Harlene nodded in acknowledgment. She knew she lacked in offensive skills but she always filled the lacking with her defensive skills. No one had ever been able to realize that until today.

Tom went along with his lecture. He made others to duel between them and made comments on their lacking, but he didn't ask Harlene to duel again. In fact he didn't even look at Harlene again that night, which made her a little irritated.

After an hour or so he called it a night. He told everyone to go to their dormitory before curfew started. Harlene made to leave with the others when Tom stopped her.

'Ms. Peverel, if you would stay back a little.' Tom spoke to her in a calm voice. Harlene nodded and returned inside the room.

She waited till everyone left the room then she turned around to face Tom, whom she found standing right behind her. It startled her to find Tom Riddle standing so close to her. His eyes were focused on her. They held a foreign expression that Harlene couldn't understand.

'R-­Riddle, ­what are you….' Harlene didn't manage to finish as her breath hitched in her throat, when Tom gently took her wand hand in his palm.

He tore his piercing icy blue eyes from her surprised avada kedavara green eyes and looked down at her hand. Harlene watched in utter disbelief as he gently touched the place where Malfoy's curse had hit her.

Tom inspected the injured hand, making sure it wasn't a permanent damage. It wasn't a big damage but her pale skin had turned black, enough to enrage the teenage Dark Lord.

 _"I'll kill him for damaging MY things_."

'You should treat the wound before it makes any further damage.' Tom said to her in a calm voice as he brought his wand and murmured incantation to heal the wound. Soon the blackness disappeared from her skin, leaving her pale skin in its place.

_"WHAT THE HELL?!"_

When he was done he looked up to find a wide eyed Harlene staring at him with open mouth. He quirked an elegant eyebrow at her but didn't comment.

'T­thank you.' Harlene still couldn't believe what just happened. Did the Dark Lord really just heal her wound?

_"OH MY GOD!"_

'So what do you think about the meeting?' Tom asked her distracting her from the current situation.

'It was interesting I have to say.' Harlene already distracted from the conversation that she didn't even notice that Tom hadn't drop the hand he was holding. In fact she felt calm as he gently stroked the back of her palm with his thumb in small circle in a soothing manner.

'But I don't think I want to hear someone commenting on my _offensive skill.'_  Harlene told him with a small smirk, drawling at the words 'offensive skill'.

Tom frowned at her words, 'Really? What a shame! Then will you not be joining us anymore?'

He dropped her hand, making Harlene frown for the sudden empty feeling. But she soon forgot about it.

'Nope, and you can't make me.' Harlene said to him with a smirk. She was challenging him to try.

Harlene frowned at her words inwardly; she couldn't understand what was making her act like that. It should felt wrong talking to Tom so casually. But it didn't, rather it felt natural; which scared the hell out of her.

Tom replied to her in a calm tone, 'Then I guess this is a good night. Although I must say before you leave; even if you refuse to come here again, I will not leave you to protect yourself alone. I will help you to find the person who is after you. I promise.'

Harlene's eyes widened at those word, making her blush slightly. She couldn't reply to those words.

'Oh..um….'

She gave a small laugh and said, 'Fine, I'll come. Let me know when the next meeting is. Will you? You really do know how to manipulate people. Don't you Riddle?'

With that Harlene turned around and left the room with a small smile on her face. She couldn't even hear the reply Tom gave her as she left. An evil grin formed on his lips as he watched her form disappearing out of the door.

'You have no idea, Ms. Harlene Peverel.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Okay before everyone jumps on me on the birthday fact, let me clear it out; Harlene's original birthday is 31st July but Voldemort chose her as his equal on Samhain. So, for me (for other) she was reborn on that night. I will explain more later in the fic. So please dont kill me.


	11. Dance with the Devil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: The name of this chapter is from the song "Dance with the devil" by Breaking Benjamin. Also this chapter is betaed.   
> Please enjoy everyone.

December brought the first Hogsmeade trip. The road to the little magical village was covered in a thick layer of snow. Everywhere, from the roof tops to the roads, it was covered in a thick blanket of snow.

Harlene made her way through the snow into the village. For once in her life she was actually having the time of her life. She roamed around the village without anyone noticing her, pointing at her or whispering behind her back. It felt like a new day to her.

Harlene watched as students walked passed her giggling and laughing by themselves. Suddenly she felt so lonely; her friends weren't here to laugh with her, to talk with her, to …comfort her. In all those seven years they had been together, Harlene never felt so lonely like she felt now. Yes, there were moments in the Dursley's that she felt alone, but she never had to go through any adventure alone. They were always beside her.

But now she was in a time and place where she couldn't contact them no matter how much she wished to do it.

Sighing heavily Harlene started walking towards the Three Broomsticks in order to get a glass of Butterbear. The Three Broomsticks was the same as Harlene remembered; the only difference was the owner. In the future, the pub was run by Madam Rosemerta and now it was run by her father Robertson Rosemerta.

Harlene sat on the farthest corner beside the window of the pub with a glass of Butterbear in front of her. She looked outside of the window and remembered what was happening for the last few months.

Her life had always been odd, never normal, but past occurrences had turned her life upside down. One moment she was standing in front of the older Dark Lord as an enemy and the next she had the mini ­Dark Lord as her ally. What was happening in her world?

.

After spending a while in the bookstore of Hogsmeade, Tom walked into the Three Broomsticks for a drink. He looked around for an empty table, only to find the whole place crowded. He was about to leave when he saw an empty table at the corner of the pub with only one occupant. He couldn't look away from her as she looked outside of the window with her head rested on her hand, her eyes had a faraway look, her long black hair was tied into a simple braid which rested on top of her chest, her glass of butterbear left untouched in front of her.

Tom pulled himself out of his dazed states, as he realized that he was staring at her for a while.

_"What the hell am I doing? She is only just a pawn in my game."_

Harlene was staring out of the window when someone cleared his voice. She looked up to find none other than the person who was occupying her thoughts, she blushed slightly for that.

"Mind if I join you? Everywhere else is full." Tom told her with a smirk on his lips. Harlene shook her head. Tom pulled the chair opposite of her and sat down; he ordered a glass of butterbear.

For a while they sat in a comfortable silence and sipped their drink, then Tom broke the silence.

"You seemed to be lost in thought, mind if I ask what you are thinking." Tom told her in a curious voice. Harlene considered his question for a moment and then decided to answer him with a partial truth.

"I was just thinking that a few months ago I was targeted by one Dark Lord and now look at me, sipping butterbear with another one. How did my life change?" She told him playfully.

Tom chuckled at her joke. He understood that she doesn't wish to tell him so he didn't pester her; rather he used a different method to make her talk.

"Alright but if you ever wish to speak to anyone remember that I am there to listen." He told her with a small reassuring smile. Harlene's eyes slightly widened at that. She could only give him a curt nod as she couldn't form any words.

They again fell into the comfortable silent as they sipped their drink. After a while Harlene spoke up.

"I was just…." She said making Tom looked away from the window to her face. He could see the same faraway look on her face with sad eyes. "….remembering my friends."

"We were inseparable, the three of us. They were my first and most precious friends. We used to be something like a trouble magnet, always getting into troubles. They always stood by my side even when the whole world was against me."

Harlene didn't know why she was telling him anything but it felt so right to talk to him. It felt natural to finally able to pour her heart out.

Tom watched her closely as she for the first time talked about someone from her past. She seemed to miss her friends a lot, as she had such a sad look on her face. She was sad but there wasn't a single tear on her eyes. He had a sudden urge to embrace her and comfort her, tell her that everything will be alright.

"They seem nice. Where are they?" Tom said in a small voice. She looked at him and gave him a sad smile.

"They are gone. They are far away from my reach. No matter how much I try I will never be able to reach them again."

After that she didn't say anything as she stared outside of the window. Even Tom was silent, he didn't know what to say. They sat there in silence until it was time to return.

* * *

 

It was the night before Christmas break, Harlene was inside the Room of Requirement practicing a very complex spell. She had been coming to the meeting every weak, drawn to the knowledge they had promised.

The spell she was practicing was very complex. It was spell that makes the person's cell to turn into stone. If enough power could be put into this spell it could turn the whole body into stone. Also it was an irreversible spell.

Harlene was not in favor to practice this spell. She didn't want such a dark spell for practicing. But then she realized that this spell could also be used to heal the deadly diseases. It could be used to prevent cancer cells to spread. That was why she was practicing this spell. Unfortunately she was making no progress in performing this particular spell.

"Your wrist has to move a little bit more." Tom said as he watched her from behind. "Let me show you."

Tom suddenly took ahold of her right hand from behind while his other hand snaked around her waist, making Harlene stiffen by the sudden contact. Even if Tom noticed it he didn't comment on it.

He showed the perfect hand movement of the spell and told Harlene to say the spell.

"Dura silex." Harlene screamed out. She beamed as she saw the plush dummy slowly started to turn into stone.

Tom watched in astonishment as Harlene smiled a full toothy smile at the success. He couldn't take his eyes off of her face, as it lit up like a Christmas tree. He stepped away from her to remove the sudden clenching feeling in his gut. But it just won't go away.

_"What are you doing? You are Lord Voldemort, the greatest dark wizard of the century. You can't become flustered just by seeing a smiling face of a foolish girl. She is just a pawn in your game."_

A voice hissed inside of his head, which sounded a lot like his future snake like form's voice. Suddenly another voice inside of his head spoke up, that sounded like his normal voice.

_"Is she really? Or is she something more, a lot more than a pawn? She is a flare of hope in your dark life. Do you really wish to let her become a mere pawn? Or do you wish to keep her close and see that smile every day?"_

Tom's trail of thought was broken when his wand started to vibrate to indicate that it was time to return to dormitory.

"Alright everyone time to leave. Remember to practice the spells during the vacation." Tom spoke without any trace of the inner turmoil he was having.

Harlene and Tom were the last two persons to leave the room. As they made their way to the dormitory Tom was having a debate with himself.

They entered the common room in silence. He almost didn't even notice that Harlene had bid him good night.

"Ms. Peverell."He suddenly called from behind as she made to leave for her room. "May I talk with you for a moment?"

Harlene nodded and waited for him to speak. Her Avada Kedavra green eyes were filled with curiosity.

When Tom spoke up, his voice was calm. "I believe you are staying in Hogwarts for Yule." "Yes." Harlene replied to him, still staring at him with wide eyes.

"Also you will be attending Slughorn's party, right?" Tom asked her without taking his eyes off of her face.

"I am not sure." Tom frowned at her answer. "I mean I have been told to take a date, but I didn't really ask anyone to go with me.'

Harlene stated, but in reality she just didn't want to go with anyone, not to mention she didn't want to go alone either. Hermione won't be there to talk to or Neville* to take with her.

"Would you like to go with me?" Tom suddenly said to her, making her jaw drop.

_"What the hell? Did he just ask me to go the Slug party as his date?"_

Harlene gaped at him for a moment then she spoke, "I…uh…ummm…..sure."

For a moment Tom thought that she was going to refuse him, so when she said yes he was relieved. For the first time he gave a wide toothy grin. Harlene's eyes widened at that, she suddenly realized how handsome he actually was.

"Alright, then good night." Tom said with a smile that can make any girl's knee wobbly. Harlene just nodded and practically ran into her room. She shut the door behind her and slid down in front of it, her face had turned into a deep shade of pink.

* * *

 

"Where are we at the preparation for our newest guest?" Grindelwald said as he strolled in the huge dining room where Lord McMillan was sitting. They had arrived at the McMillan Manor in England three days ago to work on their plan.

"Yes, my lord. A room has already been prepared for her and also in case she is un­cooperative we can shift her in the dungeon." McMillan told him with a bow.

"Excellent! Have you got the invitation to the party?" Grindelwald asked as he sat down at the head of the table.

"Yes, my lord. The party will start at 7pm on 24th December." McMillan informed him. After a little hesitation he asked, "My lord will you be alright going without a disguise? What if Dumbledore recognizes you?"

Grindelwald smirked and said, "He won't. It has been almost a century since he last saw me and beside I look a lot different then I used to do."

"Yes, my lord." McMillan bowed and didn't make any more comment on the subject.

* * *

 

Christmas vacation started at Hogwarts. Most of the students left the school, leaving only a handful few who didn't have any home to return to.

The Slytherin common room was almost empty because of the Christmas vacation, only a handful of seventh years were left behind, either to study for their final year or just to attend Slughorn's party.

On the eve of Christmas Tom waited at the common room for Harlene at 7:30pm. He was dressed in Victorian style; a high collared long black coat rather than a dress robe with a full button black vest on a white dress shirt and an emerald green ascot tie. His hair was combed perfectly on one side, giving him the perfect image of a Victorian style gentleman.

Tom was sitting on the couch with his back facing the door of girl's dormitory. After a while he heard the door opened. He turned around to find Harlene standing at the door. His eyes widened at seeing her, he didn't even realized when he got up from the couch and stared at her.

She was wearing tea length light bronze colored dress with matching bronze colored baby doll suede pumps. The dress had sweet heart neck with appliqued flowers adoring the breasts, a silk bronze belt at just below the breasts and chiffon skirt that flared down to her tea, at below the silk belt appliqued flowers went down to middle of the skirt.

Her hair was divided into two parts in sideways, they were twisted upwards at the front and then let down on top of both her breasts with soft curls at the end. She had a pearl necklace that rested on top of her collar bone.

She had very light makeup on her face, light bronze eye shadow and peach lipsticks. She was blushing so there was no need for any fake blush. She looked stunning, like Greek goddess Aphrodite.

Tom couldn't even take his eyes off of her. He composed himself as she walked towards him.

"You look very beautiful, Ms. Peverell." Tom complemented her with a smile as she stopped in front of him.

"You look handsome as well, Riddle." She told him with a smile.

"Shall we?" Tom offered his arm as they made their way out of the common room.

.

The party was going on full mode as the couple made their way into it. At first sight of them Slughorn was very happy, he was practically bouncing to introduce them to some his friends.

He took Tom and Harlene, and introduced to some of the very important people of the country. Harlene just smiled at them and watched as Tom made conversation with them.

After a while as they were engrossed in their conversation she left them alone and made her way to the refreshment area. She helped herself with a cauldron cake when someone tapped on her shoulder. Harlene turned around to find Catalina standing behind her. She was wearing a blue lacey dress with a ribbon tied around her waist.

"Hi!" Catalina beamed at her with a cheery voice. Harlene smiled at her asked, "What are you doing here? Didn't you say you were going spend the Christmas with your father and cousin from Germany?"

"Well turns out fathers are good friends of Slughorn, so he invited us to attend his party along with my cousin." Catalina told her. "Come on I will introduce you to my father and cousin."

Catalina pulled Harlene by the hand and started making her way into the crowd toward the other side of the room.

"Father." She called out when they stopped in front of a tall brown haired man dressed in black dress robe, who was talking with a young silvery blond haired man.

"I want you to meet my friend Harlene Peverell." Catalina said as the duo turned around. "Harlene this is my father Lord Lionel McMillan and my cousin Gellart."

Harlene frowned a little, the name Gellart seemed familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had heard it. Catalina didn't even give any last name of the man named Gellart.

Harlene had to admit the man Gellart was very handsome. He was dress in white dress robe that had golden embroidery on it, with a golden two button vest on a white shirt and a golden neck tie.

"It is a pleasure meeting with you Ms. Peverel. My daughter spoke a lot about you." Lord McMillan said to Harlene.

"It's nice to meet you too Lord McMillan. Catalina is a very nice girl." Harlene said with a smile as she shook hands with him.

"Ms. Peverell." Gellart extended his arm toward her. As Harlene took his hand rather than shaking it he brought to his lips and kissed her knuckles. "It is a pleasure meeting with you."

He said with a smirk on his lips, giving Harlene a chill down her spine. For some reason she couldn't like Gellart. He felt dangerous, the kind of danger that she felt when Voldemort was around.

"May I have a dance with you Ms. Peverell." Gellart asked her suddenly, making her surprise.

"I..uh.. don't know how to dance" Harlene told him so that she didn't have to stay near him for long. For some reason the man made her really uncomfortable.

"It's alright I will teach you." Gellart said to her with a smirk with that Gellart took her hand and made his way toward the dance floor.

At that moment the band was playing some pop music. Gellart took a hold of her hand and he literally dragged her around the dance floor. He was making her twirl and move along the rhythm, like a puppet in the hand of its master.

On one moment Gellart made her twirl around and then twirled her back in his arm, flushed against his body. Harlene stiffened at that.

"You are a beautiful woman Ms. Peverell. I am truly honored to meet with you." Gellart whispered to her ears, making her scowl in anger. 'After all you are the last living member of the Peverel blood line."

Harlene pulled back from him, but he held her firmly not letting her go. She looked into his eyes with disbelieve to find those eyes filled with last and malice, making her shiver.

She tried to get away from her but he was too strong for her. When she was thinking that she should hex him, someone cleared his throat. Gellart scowled and looked at the man in annoyance. Harlene turned around as Gellart loosen his grip on her waist to find Tom standing behind her with a blank face, but there was anger in his eyes.

Harlene relaxed to finally finding Tom. But Tom wasn't looking at her he was glaring at Gellart.

"If I may, I would like to have my date back now." He said in a calm but icy voice. There was a faint threat in his voice.

The two dark lords stared at each other for a long moment. At the end Gellart smiled and said, "Of course. She is all yours." _For Now_.

"It was nice meeting with you. Hope to see you again." He said to Harlene as he kissed her knuckles and left the dance floor.

Tom glared at his back for a moment when Harlene spoke, "Thank you."

He turned around with a raised eyebrow. Harlene made a face and said, "For stopping me from hexing him. If you hadn't come I probably would have hexed him to next century and that would ruin Slughorn's party. So, thank you."

"If I had known that you were about to hex him I would not have meddled in. That person would have deserved it." Tom said to her, his eyes had much softer look now.

As the music ended Harlene started to made her way to get out of the dance floor, when a hand gripped her elbow. Harelne looked around to find Tom holding her arm. She gave him a questioning look which he returned with quirking an eyebrow.

"Where do you think you are going?" He asked her with a little annoyed voice.

"I was just…" Harlene trailed off as he pulled her into his arm as the next song started. This one was for slow dance. Her eyes widened in surprise when he took ahold of her arm end placed it on his shoulder and snaked his arm around her waist. "As your date for tonight I do deserve to have a dance. Don't I?"

Harlene could only nod as they slowly started to sway around with the music. She had to admit he was an excellent dancer. She felt very calm as they stared at each other's eyes.

"I have say Ms. Peverel you look very beautiful tonight." Tom said to her in a hushed voice, making her blush like a beetroot.

"Everyone has been staring at you all evening. No wonder that someone tried to make a move on you." Tom told her in alight voice. Even though he said that in a light voice he had a hard look on his eyes. He was ready to murder that bastard that touched her, made her uncomfortable.

No one can get away by touching his things. He would never allow it. But right revenge can wait; he needs to be with this person who was held in his arms.

After a while the song ended and the couple made their way out of the dance floor, when Slughorn came and took Tom with him, leaving Harlene by the refreshment table.

Suddenly Cataina came running toward her. "Harlene I have something to tell you."

"If it is about your cousin than I am sorry to say that he was an absolute pervert." Harlene said with an air of annoyance.

"No, it's not about him. It is something else. It is about who attacked you." Catalina told her with a serious expression, which got Harlene's full attention.

"You know who did it?" Harlene asked her at once, holding the other girl's arm.

"Yes, and I will tell you everything but not here. Follow me." Catalina told her vanished between the crowed.

Harlene tried to find Tom but she saw him talking with the Headmaster. So she followed Catalina alone. What she didn't notice was that Tom looked at her direction at the very moment and saw her walking toward the door following Catalina McMillan.

* * *

 

Harlene followed Catalina out of the room into the corridor. She saw that Catalina was facing the other way, her back was facing Harlene and it was shaking.

"Catalina, who is it that attacked me? Who are so scared of? Tell me, I can help you." Harlene told her in a soothing voice.

"You can't help me Harlene." Catalina said in a hushed voice, as Harlene put a hand on her shoulder.

"Cat, trust me. I can help you." Harlene told her as she turned her around to face her. Catalina's face was casted downward.

"You can't Harlene." She said in a whisper. "Because I was the one who did it."

Harlene flinched away from her as Catalina looked up at her. She looked at the other girl in anger, cursing herself for not finding it out soon.

Suddenly she sensed a curse flying at from behind. She took her wand out from under the dress and whirled around to deflect it. She found herself facing the elder McMillan as he fired after spells after spells at her joined by his daughter.

She was so occupied with dueling the McMillans that she didn't even notice the shadow behind her. When she did it was too late. A stunning spell hit her side tearing the thread of her pearl necklace, making the pearls fall on the ground. The last thing she remembered before losing her consciousness was third person looking down at her, Catalina's cousin Gellart.

At the fraction of moment she remembered where she heard that name before, she herad it so many times in the future.

He was Gellart Grindelwald, whom Dumbledore had fought.

* * *

 

Tom looked at the door of the room impatiently for Harlene to walk in. But even after fifteen minutes when she didn't returned he got irritated and walked out to find her.

When he walked out in the corridor he didn't find anyone there. Neither Harlene nor McMillan was there. He got rather annoyed at her; he turned to return at the party, only to stop at mid step as he noticed something on the ground.

He bent down to look better at the objects. He suddenly realized what it was. It was the pearls that Harlene was wearing. They were scattered at the floor.

If they were scattered at the floor like this than the question was where was Harlene.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Things are in motion. I got a feeling that this fic will be no longer than 1820 chapters. So here was chapter 11.


	12. Show them all you're not the ordinary type

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tittle is from the song 'Lets kill tonight' by Panic! At the Disco.

Harlene opened her eyes to find herself in the familiar empty space, where she first met Death. This is the second time she had come here but to her it felt like a home.

She got up from where she was lying on her back, she was in the same white spaghetti strap white dress as the first time. She looked around to find Death, as only IT can bring her here. But Death was nowhere to be seen. Harlene opened her mouth to call out to it, but no voice came out of her mouth. She tried to calm down and tried to remember why she was here, the last time she came here she was struck by Tom—no Voldemort’s killing curse. But then why now? Why was she here now? Did someone tried to kill her?

Then it suddenly hit her. She was attacked by Gellert Grindelwald and most of all Catalina helped him. She was working with him from the very beginning. She tried to harm her over and over again and pretended that she was her friend. Harlene’s blood boiled by anger at that thought. At that moment only one thought came to her mind.

_"I am going to make them regret ever messing with me."_

**‘Mistress’** , at that very moment Harlene heard the all too familiar metallic voice of Death from behind her. She turned around to face the entity; it was as she remembered, with its black hooded cloak and skeletal hand holding the scythe as it stared down at her. Harlene had a vengeful look on her face as she looked up at her faithful servant.

 **‘For a very long time this person has boasted of being the ‘master of Death’ as he wield the Death stick. Are you ready to show the one false ‘master of Death’ who the real master is?’** Death asked in its monotonous metallic voice. Harlene could very much understand who this ‘false master of Death’ was. So she gave the only answer that Death wanted.

‘Yes.’

* * *

 

Gellert Grindelwald was more than happy to acquire the last descendant of the long lost line of Peverel family, he was glowing with pride. He had done right to his tittle of the ‘Master of Death’. After all who else beside him can claim the last blood line of the family who had a close encounter to Death itself? He and only he alone can do it. No one else had the right but him, not Dumbledore not anyone.

He laughed manically by himself as he sat alone in the throne room of the Grindelwald manor nearby Godric’s Hollow. This place brings back memory to him, some are good and some are bad. But he always liked to return to this place as this place is where the Peverel brothers used to live and also the grave of the third brother Ignotus’s was here.

_"I wonder which brother she is descended from. She is probably descendant of the second or third brother as the first brother never got married."_

He thought about all of these while he waited patiently for the said person to gain consciousness from where she was kept in the manor.

* * *

 

While Grindelwald was having triumph bout his victory (for the time being) by himself, Albus Dumbledore was sitting in front of the Headmaster Dippet along with Horace Slughorn and one student, Tom Marvolo Riddle. It was well past midnight, which indicated that it has been a few hours since one of the student of Hogwarts was abducted right from the school ground.

Everyone had a grim look on their face. Slughorn was pale, as it was his party from where the new transfer student Harlene Peverel was abducted. Dumbledore was silent, every gear in his mind was whirling to find out where Harlene Peverel might have been taken. Headmaster Dippet didn’t want to inform the Aurors about the matter, because he didn’t want to tarnish the name of the school.

‘Albus I want you to find Ms. Peverel, if anyone can find her without the Ministry’s help it’s you. I don’t wish to inform the Aurors about this. So do whatever you can to find the culprit but do it silently.’ Headmaster Dippet addressed Dumbledore.

‘Yes, of course Headmaster. I shall find Ms. Peverel before the term begins.’ Dumbledore told him assuringly.

While discussing the matter nobody noticed Tom’s face. Even if they noticed they wouldn’t have been able to see the rage as he kept his face void of any emotion. But his eyes kept flashing because of anger. Anger toward the person who took Harlene Peverel from him, who had hurt her. He was still holding the pearls that he had found on the ground. He stared at them before suddenly looking up and addressed the Headmaster. His face was just as passive as before as he spoke.

‘Professor, please find Ms. Peverel as fast as you can. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to her.’

‘Yes, Tom. Don’t worry we will find Ms. Peverel as fast as we can.’ Professor Dippet said to the younger man. ‘Also it is late you should retire to bed.’

‘Alright Professor.’ Tom said with a nod and left the office not noticing the eyes of Albus Dumbledore watching him, even if he did he didn’t care about it. He was far too angry at that moment. He could feel his magic lashing out inside of him in anger.

For that reason rather than going to the common room he went straight to Room of Requirement to vent his anger.

He went inside of the dueling room and put the pearls on a table nearby. He teared opened his coat and his ascot tie from his neck. He unbuttoned one of the upper button; he stared down at the ground for a few minutes then suddenly summoning his wand and aiming a blasting curse at one of the dummies. He kept on blasting the dummies to pieces but it still didn’t calm him. He kept remembering Harlene’s smile when they danced at the party. How beautiful she looked in that dress. The more he thought about it the angrier he became.

After a couple of hours of sending curses, he realized what he needed to calm him down. He needed the one kidnapped Haelene Peverel, only when he hears the screams of that person he would calm down. Not before that. But most of all when he will see Harlene he will calm down.

* * *

 

Harlene woke from her slumber to find herself in an elegant looking room. She was lying on a king sized canopy bed, the room was dark. She got up into a sitting position and looked around the room. She could see that the bed was in exactly middle of the room against the wall; there was a door on the opposite wall of the bed, there were windows on both side of the wall behind the bed. There was only a reading table in front of a window on the right side of the bed, there was another door on the left wall but it smaller than the first one.

 Harlene got down from the bed and noticed that she was wearing different cloths from before. She had the same white dress on, the one she wore in her inner world*. Shaking her she walked at the door of the room and tried to open it but just as she thought it didn’t open.

_"Well, that was a long shot anyway."_

She then tried to find her wand but it wasn’t there either. She searched the whole room but there wasn’t anything that could help her get out of this room. She could feel her magic fluctuating inside of her because of all the anger she was feeling. She tried to suppress her magic before she destroyed everything.

“ **Do not suppress your magic, Mistress. Let it flow.”**

Harlene was startled to suddenly hear the metallic voice of Death, but she decided to pay heed to it and let loose her restrains over her magic. She raised her hands towards the door and slowly started to release her magic, she could feel her magic coming out. Everything in the room started to fly. After a while slowly she reeled her magic back.

**“What is the matter, Mistress? Why aren’t you using your magic to free yourself?”**

_"I am waiting for the right moment. After all I have to punish the one who is the false Master of Death, so it’s better to wait for them. Let them think of me as a damsel."_

Harlene thought as she sat back on the bed, she had a mischievous smirk on her face.

**“Alright, whatever Mistress thinks.”**

 Harlene waited for someone to come to her. But nobody came to get her, the only person that came into her was a house-elf who brought food for her. She tried to talk with her but the elf always left the room hurriedly. Hralene guessed that it had been three days that she had been kidnapped.

By the third day her patience was breaking. She didn’t want to stay locked inside a room any longer. That was when the door of her room opened up revealing the very person who helped to kidnap her. She looked at the person who came bursting through the door. Harlene watched as the person walked into the room with cloths in her hands, without an ounce of regret to what she had done.

‘Harlene’, the person said with a smug voice, a smirk was on her face.

‘McMillan’, Harlene addressed her with an emotionless voice. She had no business in dealing with rats like her. She had others to handle. At the moment she will pretend like a damsel, so when the time will come she could catch them off guard.

‘Please, enlighten me. What is the motive of your for doing all this?’ Harlene asked her in the same emotionless voice.

‘Isn’t it obvious? I wish my family to be at the top of the food chain.’ Catalina said as she put the clothes on her bed. Harlene quirked an eyebrow at her.

‘When Grindelwald takes over the world we will be there beside him. We, who are most loyal to him. We shall be there when he creates a new world, a better world.’ Catalina told her with a look that could put Bellatrix’s madness to shame.

Harlene gave her deadpanned look and after a while said with a smirk, ‘Huh, I have heard that one before.’ Harlene put her hands on her hips and leaned towards Catalina and said, ‘But believe me. Just like all those idiots that followed people like Grindelwald, you too shall face the same fate. The fate of defeat.’

The smile on Catalina’s face disappeared and anger replaced it. She tried to say something in return but Harlene had already turned away from her and walked towards the smaller door that leads to a luxurious bathroom with the clothes to change.

The cloth which was provided by Catalina was a high collared dark-blue long-sleeved robe with black embroidery done around the neck and on the breasts, a black corset to wear around the waist on top of the robe. The robe had slit in the middle so a similar blue skirt was provided to wear under it.

Harlene walked out of the bathroom wearing the dress and found that Catalina was sitting on the bed with an angry expression on her face. Harlene smirked at her expression which made her even angrier. Catalina got down from the bed and stomped towards the door. Without even looking back she told Harlene to follow her which she did without any fuss.

* * *

 

 Grindelwald sat on the throne majestically, waiting for his prize to arrive. He had a glass full of Europe’s finest wine, which was rich in taste and colour. Beside him Lord McMillan was standing like an adviser of a king. There were at least hundred more people in the room but all of their faces were hidden in hooded cloacks. They were all gathered inside a huge ball room, there was huge widows around the room and a beautiful chandelier was hanging down from the ceiling.

Catalina walked into the room with Harlene right behind her. She had a poker face on, no one could understand what was going through her mind.

She walked into the room with determined thoughts. She will flatten them all if it’s necessary, otherwise she will wait till Dumbledore could get to Grindelwald.                       

Grindelwald looked up from where he was sitting when Catalina brought Harlene into the room.

 ‘My Lord, your prize is here.’ Catalina said in a sweet voice to Grindelwald, which almost made Harlene gag.

Harlene quirked an eyebrow at the ‘prize’ comment, but kept her mouth shut.

‘Welcome, welcome Ms. Peverel! The Last descendent of the one of the most Ancient house of magical Britain. Welcome to my humble home.’ Grindelwald said with a crazy smile on his face.

_"Okay! This guy’s head is bag full of cats!!No surprise there."_

‘I am thrilled to have you in my possession. After all this time the Master of Death finally got the last descendent of the family who came into contact with Death itself. This calls for a celeb-’

Grindelwald stopped in mid-sentence when he noticed the trembling figure of Harlene, her face was downcast. At first Grindelwald thought that she was trembling in fear. But his thought soon changed when Harlene no longer could keep her laughter in control.

‘Hahahah…hahah….ahaha…!!’

Grindelwald and Lord McMillan looked at her with shocked expression, while Catalina hissed at her. But Harlene didn’t care about others thought as she could hardly contain her laughter. At last she stopped laughing and looked at Grindelwald with a smirk.

‘You are funny Grindelwald. I expected better from you.’ Harlene shook her head in mock disapproval. ‘But then again I have too much of high standard with Dark Lords for you to match up with.’

‘What?!’ Grindelwald growled at her, his face had a confused look.

Harlene looked at him with innocent eyes and said ‘Oh! You didn’t get it? Let me clear it out for you.’ She gave him a smirk and said, ‘Firstly, I am not the only descendent of the Peverel’s, there are others out there. They don’t go by the name Peverel, but they _are_ descendent of them. For example,the Gaunts.’

Harlene looked at him with a smug face and saw no recognition on his face on that name, so she went on mocking him, ‘Oh! You don’t know them? Dont worry I am sure Lord McMillan will recognize the next one.’

Harlene looked at Lord McMillan and slowly said, ‘The Potters?’

A look of surprise crossed his face, but only for fraction of a second. But it was enough for Harlene to see. She gave a toothy grin at him, her smile got even bigger when she heard a sharp inhale from Catalina.

She turned to Grndelwald to find his face contorted into rage. Harlene smile turned into a smirk.

‘Secondly,’ Harlene smirk vanished and irritation replaced it. ‘I am not your prize nor your possession. You can’t _afford_ me. I mean, I am after all the richest person in all magical Britain _and_ muggle Britain.’

‘I don’t think-’ Grndelwald tried to retort something back to her but with a snap of her finger he was silenced.

‘I am not done talking yet.’ Harlene growled at him with a furious expression. Grindelwald’s eyes widened at the wandless silencing charm.

‘Now, as I was saying before I was _rudely_ interrupted. The third reason why you are not a high standard Dark Lord.’ Harlene tilted her head, a dangerous smile tugging at her lips. She could feel her magic swelling inside of her. ‘You have a false tittle. What I mean is that you are Not the Master of Death.’

Suddenly the whole room burst into shouts. Every one of Grindelwald’s minions were screaming at her. She heard Catalina screeched at her, ‘How dare you disrespect the Master!’ But Harlene wasn’t fazed by them, her eyes were fixed on Grindelwald.

Grindelwald broke the silencing spell with a wave of his wand. The wand caught Harlene’s eyes, she could feel the magic vibrating inside of it, waiting to be claimed by the true Master of Death.

Grindelwald suddenly started to laugh loudly, making Harlene to frown at him. Everyone in the room looked at him with shocked expression.

He stopped laughing at last and looked at Harlene with amused expression, ‘You are brave Ms. Peverel. I will give you credit for that, not many people can show such bravery in front of me. I am impressed.’

Harlene scoffed at him. Which made Grindelwald more amused. He stood up from the throne like chair and walked toward her. He stopped in front of her and looked at her in the eyes which she returned without a hint of fear.

‘I understand few of the things you said was true. Like how you were not the only descendent of the Peverel’s. True. Or how we can’t afford you. Also true. But here is where you’re wrong. I _am_ the Master of Death.’

Harlene smirked and raised her eyebrows at him and asked in an amused voice, ‘Really? And how did you know that? Did Death came and told you personally?’

Even though the last question sounded like a mocking question it really wasn’t.

‘Silly girl, when I wielded the Death stick for the first time I became the Master of Death.’ Grindelwald told her. ‘Do you really think I would need to find other Hallows to be the Master of Death?’

‘Actually, yes. You do.’ Harlene said in a matter of fact tone. ‘You see you need much more than the strength to be the Master of Death. You also need resurrection and invisibility.’

‘Oh, you seems to know a lot about this things. Mind if I ask how you know all of this?’ Grindelwald said to her in an amused voice.

‘Of course not. But before I answer your question I would suggest you look around you.’

Grindelwald frowned at her and looked around. He hadn’t even noticed that the whole room was silent. He looked at Harlene and quirked an eyebrow in question.

She raised a finger at him, in a motion to tell him to give her a moment. She looked at Catalina who was standing few feet away from and stretched her hand at her palm raised, slowly she released only a small part of magic and-

BOOM!!!!

Catalina went flying across the room with the huge amount of force from the stunning spell, she crashed onto the opposite wall and fell to the floor with a thudding noise.

A shock expression crossed Gridelwald’s face as he watched the sheer amount of power the wand-less curse held. Everyone in the room raised their wand at her, ready to fire spell at first command.

‘Looks like the kitten needs to learn how to behave.’ Grindelwald told in a monotone voice with a slight hint of anger. He raised his hands at his minions to stop at their track. He will handle this.

Harlene quirked an eyebrow at him. Suddenly without any warning Grindelwald took out the Elder wand and hissed, ‘Crucio.’

Harlene was not ready for the sudden attack, but braced herself for the pain to come. But the pain never came. There was a stinging sensation on her skin, but it was not as severe as the actual impact of the torture curse.

She looked at Grindelwald with a smirk, the Elder wand at any time-line will not harm the Master of death, whether it was claimed by the master or not. Grindelwald stared at her with a horrified expression on his face.

Harlene with a smirk raised her hand and summoned her wand, ‘Accio Phoenix wand.’

The Phoenix wand came whirling from Lord McMillan’s robe pocket which Harlene caught with great reflex. ‘Now’ she smirked, ‘my turn.’

At once she shot disarming spell at him which he deflected but the sheer amount of power sent him sliding back a few feet.

But before he could recover, a blasting hex hit him and sent him flying across the room. Harlene listened to what Tom had said about her lack in offence, and worked on her offensive skills. Although she liked defense more than offence.  Today was the day when she showed that she could very well play the part of the offensive party in a battle as well.

Grindelwald got up from where he had landed and looked at her with poisonous eyes and sanrld, ‘Kill her.’

And all of a suddeen chaos erupted inside the room, all of Grindelwald’s minions charged at Harlene. Without any hasitation Harlene shot spells after spells at them, but soon the sheer number of them was overpowering her. But she fought with them with clenched jaw.

_"Shit! I won’t be able to hold them much longer!!"_

At one point of the battle, Harlene was surrounded by the remaining minions, she had taken down few dozen people but there were at least fifty people surrounding her.

Harlene was trapped in the middle of the circle, she had her wand raised but she couldn’t tell who will attack first or will they attack all at once. Harlene realized that they were waiting for Grindelwald’s command to finish her.

Grindelwald was again back at the throne chair and had a bored look on his handsome face, he assessed the situation and came to decision, ‘Do it.’

He no longer had any use of such troublesome pet. All those pets who couldn’t obey their masters should be dead after all.

All at once shot the killing curses were shot at her from all around her, she at once put up a strong shield around her. But they continuously shot jets of green light at her. If it was one or two she would have been able to hold them off easily but all of these killing curses were turning out to be too much to handle.

The sheer amount of the curse made her get on her knees. Soon the killing curses overwhelmed the whole place and made a green sphere around her.

_"I can’t hold on anymore."_

**‘Mistress’**

Suddenly the metallic voice of Death came to Harlene’s ears. She all but screamed for help in her mind at IT.

**‘Mistress, let go of your restrains and accept the power of Hallows, then you shall be able to do the impossible.’**

_"How? How can I do that??"_

**‘Try to reach for the Hallows in your soul, they are waiting for you to be claimed inside of you.’**

The concept of the Hallows being inside of her wasn’t very exciting to Harlene but she closed her eyes and calmed down and try to call for the Hallows in her mind.

Soon she could feel a warm feeling spread inside of her and heal the exhaustion of her magical core. She could feel her magic enhance and being channeled by her hand to her wand. She could feel a shift in her wand, as if it was reforming.

The minions had closed around her shooting the killing curse constantly, they could see the sphere of the shield shrinking down. They thought that she was overpowered and the shield were losing its power. But they couldn’t anticipate this.

They took another step toward her to break the shield down when they suddenly hard,

‘EXPELLIARMUS !!’

Suddenly the shield exploded in blinding white light. Grindelwald covered his eyes from the blinding light, when the light reduced he finally could see the room.

There stood Harlene Peverel, in all her glory holding her wand and around her lay all of his men, arms spread like eagle without any wand in their hands.

Fear became clear in his eyes as he looked at the witch, for the first time in his life the fear of life consumed him. He could feel the raw power emitting from her, a power so that send chills down his spine.

_"What is this power? How could she be this powerful? She is only seventeen!"_

Harlene finally looked at Grindelwald in cold eyes, ‘That Grindelwald,’ she said as if she had heard his thoughts ‘was the true power of the Master of Death, which you will never obtain.’

She walked toward him and looked at him like she was seeing something very dirty and spoke with heat,

‘You will never be the Master of Death, Grindelwald.’ Grindelwald watched in horror as a silhouette of a ten feet tall winged being appeared behind Harlene, it stood behind her in a protecting manner. In that very moment he realized that whatever he had learned about her was not true. It couldn’t even describe one tenth of the magic she held.

* * *

 

Suddenly the door of the throne room burst opened and the silhouette behind Harlene disappeared at once. She looked at the door and found herself looking at a pair of icy blue eyes and that was when exhaustion caught up to her and she finally lost her consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Imagine the inner worlds of Shinigamis from Bleach.


	13. I am the dark messiah

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tittle of this chapter is from 'The vengeful one' by Disturbed.   
> Also this is not a beta-ed chapter. Sorry for making everyone read my bad English writing.

The night Harlene was kidnapped Tom didn’t sleep even for a single moment. By the time he had come out of the Room of Requirement dawn was near. He went to his room and took a long shower to drive the tiredness away.

By the time he descended to The Great Hall it was already morning. When he walked into the Hall the first thing that he saw was Dumbledore sitting on the breakfast table, the only table on the middle of the Hall.

He hadn’t left to find Harlene yet.

Anger boiled inside of him but he straightened his face and walked towards the table. He had come to decision when he was showering and now it was time to put the first step into action.

He sat on the table that currently had two other person, Dumbledore and Headmaster Dippet. They were engrossed in deep conversation when Tom sat down on an empty chair.

He looked at the professors, ‘Excuse me, Headmaster Dippet.’ The professor looked at him from their conversation, ‘Pardon me for interrupting your conversation. But I was merely curious to know when Professor Dumbledore will leave to find Ms. Peverell.’

Headmaster Dippet smiled at the younger man and said, ‘Albus will be leaving as soon as he finds any lead on her.’

Tom gave a curt nod at that, even though he wasn’t satisfied with the information. He looked at Dumbledore and addressed him, ‘If it is not any trouble, Professor Dumbledore; I would like to help you finding her.’ _And those who has hurt her._

Dumbledore looked at him with a raised eyebrow. But before he could say anything Headmaster Dippet spoke, ‘Are you sure, my boy? It could be very dangerous. We don’t know why she was kidnapped.’

‘I know professor. But I feel guilty that she was kidnapped while she was with me.’ He said with a sad face but inside he was furious. He needed revenge _and_ he needed Harlene.

‘What do you think, Albus? Should he accompany you to find Ms. Peverell?’ Headmaster Dippet asked Dumbledore.

Dumbledore looked at Tom for a long time, as if he was seeing right into his soul. Icy blue eyes met with ocean blue eyes, without faltering at all Tom held his gaze firmly.

Who knew what Dumbledore found in Tom’s eyes, ‘I believe there won’t be any problem if Mr. Riddle accompanies.’

Tom quirked an eyebrow at him but said nothing and nodded, ‘Thank you Professor.’ Tom ignored the fact that Dumbledore’s eyes were twinkling even more than before.

‘Is there no lead on her? How she was taken out of the school?’ Tom asked.

‘Well, they were quite cunning I must say, they didn’t leave any trace behind. Although we can only guess how they did, we cannot tell for sure.’ Headmaster Dippet said with a grim face.

_"Of course you don’t know how they did it, you fool old man. I am not interested to hear your thought in this matter. You are probably wrong about it."_

 ‘Albus has a theory about it.’ _Of course he does. That’s why I asked in the first place, you fool._ ‘He thinks that after they stunned her they casted a Disillusion spell on her and hovered her out of the castle into the carriage. That’s why no one saw them getting her out of the castle.’ 

_"I don’t want to know how they did it or why. All I want to know is where they are, so that I can find her and later give them a slow and painful death. Just the way they deserve."_

Tom couldn’t ask any further about this matter as few other student that were staying in the school in Christmas came for breakfast.

* * *

 

Tom went to the library after the breakfast, to clear his mind but he ended up searching for information about the Peverell family.

He couldn’t find anything in the library. But when he looked for information in the books that he possessed he found something.

It was a book Malfoy gave him when he was searching for any information on Harlene. He said it contained some information. It was a book about the oldest families of magical Britain. Malfoy gave it to him weeks ago but he had completely forgotten about it.

It wasn’t much but enough to shed some light on the situation. It said,

_The Peverells were said to be the one of the oldest families of magical Britain. The first Peverell was born more than three thousand years ago, even before Britain was established. It is said that they were present when Britain was established._

_Even though the Peverells were one of the oldest families of Britain they were also the first family to vanish from the history, as the Peverell name thought to be died down around the first century._

_The only Peverell name was found in a tomb in Godric’s Hollow. He was Ignotus Peverell, one of the founding member of the Peverell family line._

_There are some pagans, who believed that the Peverells are the three brothers from the Tale of the Three Brothers by Beedle the Bard. Of course no historical evidence was found about the Peverell brothers being gifted by Death itself. But some believed that if the true descendant was found the objects can be found as well._

_The family itself had contained many powerful witches and wizards but none of them had any connection with the three hallows._

There wasn’t any information about the three hallows here as the three hallows was just a myth and it was a history book about ancient families. There was no historical evident about their existence. But Tom wasn’t much concerned about those…at least for now.

He had some idea about why she was kidnapped. Right now all he needed was to find the location of her captivation, which was another way of saying he was still stuck in square one.

He sighed in frustration and racked his finger through his perfectly combed hair. He needed Harlene, he needed revenge but first of all he needed to find Dumbledore.

He got up from where he was sitting and went to find, as he called him ‘senile old fool’.

* * *

 

Dumbledore was not having the best Christmas vacation at all. Just before the start of Christmas vacation one of the student of Hogwarts had been kidnapped. Not to mention that student was a certain Harlene Peverell who was an enigma herself. And now the biggest shock was when Thomas Marvolo Riddle volunteered to help find Ms. Peverell.

Dumbledore was confused what to do with the situation. He didn’t know what to think of Tom Riddle. Before, he was certain that the boy didn’t think of anyone else but himself, and this morning that boy had shown concern for a fellow student, despite of the danger.

He didn’t want to put his hopes high in thinking that Tom was somehow smitten with Harlene Peverell, but he couldn’t understand what could Tom possibly wished to gain from her.

For now it’s better to watch, by this who knew maybe he could even decipher the puzzle of Harlene Peverell.

There was a quite knock on the Dumbledore’s office door.

‘Come in.’ Dumbledore said while not taking his eyes off of the many papers that was lying on his table. He very welly knew who it was, after breakfast he had been waiting for his appearance after all.

The door opened and closed, the tapping noise of footstep was the only thing could be heard in the room. The person stopped in front of Dumbledore. He looked up to find the person he had expected, Tom Riddle standing in front of him.

‘Ah, Mr. Riddle it’s a good thing you are here.’ Dumbledore said, his usual cheery voice was gone as it was never really present when he talked with Tom,

‘Is there anything on Ms. Peverell’s whereabouts, Professor?’ Tom understood that Dumbledore was not very impressed by him as the other professors, but at this moment he really didn’t care.

‘Well, I have located couple of places where McMillans have their manors.’ Dumbledore looked at him and saw Tom’s eyebrows furrowed, whether that was in anger or some other emotion he couldn’t understand. But at the moment he decided not to dwell on it.

‘So, you have found out the place where she is kept?’ Tom asked with furrowed eyebrows as he looked at the addresses of those places.

_"That’s odd. How can he-"_

‘I can’t tell for sure that we will find her there. Even if we don’t, we can at least find some clues of her exact location from there.’ Dumbledore told him

_"Or the culprits who took her."_

Tom thought but kept his face neutral for any mal-intention from showing.

‘If you are to accompany me’ Dumbledore looked at Tom through his glasses for any reaction but he found none, ‘we need to think of strategies.’

‘Yes, professor.’ Tom said without an ounce of emotion.

* * *

 

They spend the whole afternoon going through different plans. By evening they decided to raid the main McMillan Manor first and then they will scan through others.

By the time Tom and Dumbledore came out of the office it was almost time dinner. After finishing dinner Dumbledore told about their plan to the Headmaster.

Tom and Dumbledore left for the McMillan Manor soon. They apparated from Hogsmeade to a wizard village called Caerphilly in Gwent, Wales. The main manor of McMillans was there. Caerphilly was a small village. Most of the residents were wizards with some muggle here and there.

Dumbledore started walking through the snow clad road Tom following him closely. The road was absolutely empty as it was Christmas, everyone was inside enjoying the time with their family.

They walked for a while until they stopped in front of a huge metal gate. From outside of the gate they could see the McMillan Manor, but no light can be seen.

When they approached towards the gate they couldn’t feel any barrier around the place. That was very unusual for a wizarding family to leave their manor unprotected like that. Which could mean only one thing. Tom almost growled in the realization. 

Tom looked at Dumbledore and saw no reaction to the fact that the house was empty. He didn’t even bat an eye about the lack of barrier. He looked at him in confusion and suddenly the realization dawned on him.

_"He Knew! He knew that this place would be empty. But why did he waste time in coming here? What did he possibly wish to find?"_

Without a word they silently walked into the manor. They found themselves standing in the hall room of the house. Everything inside the house indicated that it was empty. It was dark and every furniture was covered with white sheets. But still Dumbledore walked deeper inside the house, wand raised illuminating the room with the ‘ _lumos’_ spell. Tom followed him with his own wand in his hand.

After a while they entered a room and Dumbledore finally stopped. Tom came from behind of him with an irritated look on his face. He looked around to find themselves in a study room.

‘We should look for something that might tell us where she could be. Let us start looking Mr. Riddle.’ Dumbledore said as he walked toward the study table at the end of the room.

Tom just simply nodded and walked toward the book shelf to look for any clues of their whereabouts.

After spending hours of going through various books and scrolls they came up with nothing. By each passing seconds Tom was getting more and more frustrated and angry. He was angry on Harlene for getting kidnapped and making him feel this way, angry on the McMillans for kidnaping Harlene and most of all angry on Dumbledore for wasting time.

Just when he was about to explode in anger Dumbledore exclaimed suddenly, making Tom jump up from the place he was crouched down.

‘Did you find something, professor?’ Tom asked as got closer to the older man. He could see that he was holding a small burnt paper from the fireplace. ‘What is it?’

‘Proof that what I thought was right.’ Dumbledore said with a thoughtful look. Tom frowned in annoyance at him.

_"That fool and his riddles!"_

Tom came in behind him and looked at the burnt paper, it was a part of a letter but burnt so no one could read it other than the person it was sent to.

There was only few letter in that paper but it didn’t make any sense as the rest of the letter was burnt. The writer had used a sign in the place of his signature.

It was not a runes which at first Tom thought it was, it looked like an eye but different. It was a triangle with a circle inside and a straight vertical line.

Tom didn’t understand what this symbol meant, what this sign had anything to do with Harlene. He felt stupid and he didn’t like that at all. Not to mention that symbol looked familiar but he couldn’t remember where he had seen it before.

Dumbledore thought for a moment if he should disclose this matter to Tom, he wasn’t sure how Tom would react to such valuable information. But he had to know. So he decided to tell him……a little.

 ‘This is a symbol that Grindelwald used when he was young.’ Dumbledore said to Tom. Tom quirked an eyebrow at him, which clearly indicated _how do you know that?_

Even though Dumbledore understood Tom’s unspoken question he acted as if he didn’t. Dumbledore stood up and said, ‘I had doubts that the McMillans were working as Grindelwald’s spy inside the school and also he was the one who had kidnapped Harlene. Looks like I was right. So right now we need to find him.’

‘So, if we find Grindelwald, we can also find Harlene.’ Tom said as realization dawned onto him.

‘Yes.’

* * *

 

After that Tom and Dumbledore went back to school and tried to track Grindelwald’s path. Grindelwald had been moving a lot for few years, which was making it hard for them to track his path.

‘Is Grindelwald one the pagans that believes that Peverells were gifted by Death?’ Tom suddenly asked Dumbledore as they were sitting inside his office, trying to find Grindelwald. ‘sir.’

Dumbledore was shocked at first that Tom knew about the three hallows but he kept his face neutral and turned to Tom from his work place.

‘What do you mean Tom?’ Dumbledore asked him.

‘I had found it in a book that there were some pagans that believed that Peverells were gifted by Death and if they find the true heir of Peverell they can gain that gift.’ Tom said to Dumbledore, his face void of any other emotion except for curiosity.

_"Tom is very smart. If I deny everything he might get interested on the Hallows and try to pursue them himself. I **cannot** pique his interest."_

‘You are very right to think that he was one of the pagans who thought that Peverells were gifted by Death.’ Dumbledore told him. ‘But that does not mean that what they believe is to be true. It is true that the Peverells were a very gifted family. There were many powerful witches and wizards born from that family. But that doesn’t mean that Death had gifted them.’

Tom thought about what he heard. It was true that Peverells were truly gifted. Harlene herself was the biggest example. But does that mean Death had something to do with it?

_"Death, huh?"_

Tom was at the same time terrified and excited about the prospect of being gifted by Death. By denying Dumbledore had confirmed that what he had read was somewhat true. Now he was even more eager and desperate to find Harlene and keep her in his possession.

* * *

 

It had been three days since Harlene had been kidnapped, other than finding out about an interesting thing about Peverell family they had nothing.

They had gone through thousands of documents, they had been to at least a dozen places where Grindelwald could be but it was all futile. The last information they had on McMillans was that Lord McMillan had been to Gringotts with a silver haired young man.

They were sure that this silver haired man was Grindelwald but what was surprising was how he was young.

‘Malkoth, the goblin that was handling the Peverell family vaults was put under imperious curse to gain information on Ms. Peverell. So it is quite obvious that Grindelwald had been into the UK for a while.’ Tom stated as he looked at the letter they received from the bank.

Dumbledore was quiet, he was looking outside of the window of his office, and he had the burnt letter in his hand.

_"Could it be? Could it possibly be that simple? "_

‘I think I might know where he is.’ He suddenly said, making Tom stop in his talking.

‘Where?’ Tom asked. _If you know you old coot why haven’t you said anything yet?_

‘He is at Godrics Hollow.’ _Where it all started._ Dumbledore turned from the window. ‘There is a Manor that his aunt owned. If he is in UK for this long he should be there, after all very few people knew about that place.’

.

 _Godric’s Hollow!_ Tom’s eyes widened when Dumbledore said the name. _That’s where the Peverells used to live and also there is a grave of a Peverell._

 Tom hurriedly masked his expression as Dumbledore turned around. He didn’t want to let him know about his emotions.

‘We should leave at once than, professor. We cannot waste any more moment.’ Tom said with a determined expression.

Dumbledore smiled at his enthusiasm.

" _Maybe I am thinking too much, Perhaps he may actually be smitten by Ms. Peverell after all."_

‘Yes, Mr. Riddle it appears we cannot.’ With that they left the room to inform the Headmaster about their discovery.

* * *

 

They stood in front of the house, it was bigger than a house it was more like a manor. Once it probably was a beautiful manor but now it just looked gloomy.

There was protections around the manor, Tom could feel it. He looked at Dumbledore to find a grim look on his face, his usual twinkling in the eyes were gone too.

_"What’s with him?"_

Tom raised an eyebrow at Dumbledore’s grim expression, but before he could make any comment on it he was cut off.

‘Let’s go, Mr. Riddle.’ With that Dumbledore walked right through the barrier without even much of bating an eye.

The manor was under fideius charm, but as Dumbledore was already told about the location by the secrete keeper, Grindelwald’s aunt; it didn’t really matter.

When they entered the house they found themselves in a narrow corridor. Slowly they walked ahead with their wand raised. Even though from outside it looked gloomy but inside it was still extravagantly luxurious.

As they walked ahead they soon found themselves face to face with guards to prevent intruders. But it was hardly any obstacle for any of them. Soon unconscious bodies laid behind of their pathway.

As they were scanning through the first floor they suddenly felt a huge explosion of magic, halting them in their path. Both of them could recognize that power as Harlene’s. It was coming from the second floor.

‘Harlene’ Tom whispered and broke into a run toward that direction, followed closely by Dumbledore.

There were more guards in the second floor but they hardly cared for that. Tom shoot spells after spells towards the guards or any one that came to stop them. At that moment he didn’t care what Dumbledore thought, he needed to find Harlene. He needed to see her.

.

Soon he found himself in a long corridor where there was a large door at the end of it. Suddenly there was another blast of magic that halted them in their track. This one stronger than the one before, much stronger than before.

To Tom these blasts of magic felt raw, like it had no tempering in it. It felt pure. That pure energy made Tom’s magic vibrate in ecstasy and harmony. Like it was waiting for this magic for a long time. He never felt this way before but still it felt so familiar. Like….like _home._

Without wasting a single moment Tom rushed toward the door and yanked it open. He saw Harlene standing in front of a silver haired man. She wore a green robe, her hair was flying like a goddess.

She looked at him as he stepped through the door. Icy blue eyes met with _avada_ green ones and it felt like time stopped. But a second later Tom watched as Harlene lost her consciousness and fell to the ground. Tom suddenly saw red and shoot a powerful curse at Grindelwald.

* * *

 

Grindelwald was still looking up at the dark goddess when the door burst opened and she looked away, also as the figure behind her disappeared. A moment later the girl fainted in front of him.

From the corner of his eyes he saw a curse coming at him, which he only managed to dodge by apparating on the other side of the room.

He saw a dark haired tall boy crouching down to pick up Harlene Peverell, but before he could do anything he was stopped by a figure cutting his view from them. The man before him was none other than his old friend Albus Dumbledore.

A maniacal smile appear on his face. " _Oh! This will be fun."_

‘Albus! My old friend!! Long time no see.’ He said, still smiling with that maniacal smile.

Tom turned around as he picked up Harlene to find Dumbledore and Grindelwald standing face to face. Ready to pound at each other at any moment.

‘Hello, old friend.’ He heard Dumbledore said, there was a hint of sadness in his voice.

_"So that’s what this is!"_

‘Mr. Riddle why don’t you take Ms. Peverell while I take care of other matters here.’ Dumbledore said over his shoulder.

‘Alright sir.’ For now Harlene health was more important. But before leaving he didn’t forget to attach two small port-keys to both of the McMillan’s cloth, so that he could give them proper punishment. After that he apparated out of that place leaving Dumbledore with his old friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, every one. This chapter actually wasn't in my initial plot. But then I just thought 'what the heck! lets do this.' Although I must say it was a bit hard to keep Tom in the character and make him a hero. I mean lets face it he is not really the 'Oh my darling! I will save you' type, he is more 'I will burn down the whole world to find you' type.   
> I hope I managed to keep him that way.   
> Let me know what you think.


	14. Oh, why?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The name of this chapter is from Rascal Flatts' "Why". This chapter will set motion to lot of events. A lot questions will be asked here and some of them will be answered. So enjoy.

Tom watched as Harlene slept on the hospital bed. They had arrived at Hogwarts few hours ago, He had brought Harlene to the infirmary straight away. The medi-witch madam Winfred said that she was unconscious because of magical exhaustion. Apparently she had used too much of her raw energy, which caused her to have physical exhaustion. That was why she was in magically induced coma so that her magic could heal.

_‘She looks so peaceful.’_

Tom thought as he stared at her. He had been with her since they had arrived, he just couldn’t find it in him to leave her. Unconsciously he brushed his fingers on her cheek and frowned, he couldn’t understand what it was at first but then suddenly he realized why her body seemed a little blurry to him. It was not happening constantly but once in a while it would vibrate, like it was changing.

_‘What? Why does she have-’_

He never noticed it before, well it was obvious as she had never been magically exhausted to not kept this up. Not to mention he had not seen her very closely, if he had he would have found it out sooner.

_‘Why, Ms. Peverell? Why do have the need to hide? No to mention like this. What are you hiding?_

 Tom looked at her with concern. He couldn’t understand the reason, but he knew that if she didn’t tell him herself he couldn’t make her. So he decided not to say anything to her about this matter.

 

* * *

Dumbledore sat in his office, engrossed in his thoughts. He had arrived at Hogwarts an hour or so after Tom arrived with Harlene, since than he had locked himself inside his office.

Thinking over and over about what he had learned today. He was shocked would be an understatement, he was dumbstruck. He didn’t know what to think of this matter. He got up from his chair and walked toward a shelf nearby, which he tapped with his wand. The shelf split into half revealing a stone basin, the pensive.

He tapped his forehead with the wand and pulled out the silvery thread of the memory, and dropped it into the swirling liquid of the pensive. Immediately the memory became visible inside the pensive.

As soon as the memory became visible Dumbledore dived into the swirling liquid and found himself in the room that he came from an hour ago, in front of him was a very younger looking Grindelwald and himself. He watched as they talked with each other.

‘It has been a while, hasn’t it Albus?’ Grindelwald said with the same maniacal smile, he had his arms crossed on his chest.

‘Yes, it has.’ Dumbledore said sadly. He didn’t want to meet with Grindelwald, afraid of what he might found out.

‘Why the long face, Albus? You have your student back. Don’t you? You should celebrate.’ Grindelwald said, mocking Dumbledore. ‘After all you have such a powerful witch under your influence. You must be so proud.’

‘What do you mean?’ Dumbledore asked him, frowning at him.

‘Ms. Peverell is quite the creature I must say. But don’t worry I have no interest in an early death so I shall not associate myself with her anymore.’ Grindelwald said with a matter of fact tone.

When he saw Dumbledore’s perplexed expression he rolled his eyes and said, ‘Don’t look so confused Albus. You must have known that she is a powerful witch, right?’

‘Ms. Peverel has a great potentiality in her. One day she can be a formidable witch.’ Dumbledore said in a calming tone.

‘Hahahaha!’ Grindelwald laughed out loudly, ‘Oh Albus, for someone smart as you, you sure can be dumb. But then again denial was your best streak.’

Suddenly Grindelwald became serious and said, ‘Allow me to eradicate all your doubts. That girl’s power is fearsome. It is not something neither you nor I have ever faced.’

‘Albus, even I cannot describe what her power is like. Its raw, it’s intriguing like…like a drug. But just like all drugs her magic is dangerous as well. _She_ is dangerous as well. Look at all this people she has defeated, also with just a single blow.’

With every words came out of Grindelwald’s mouth Dumbledore became more and more wary of the situation. He could see the obsessive nature of his in those eyes but it was subdued by fear.

_“Ms. Peverel, what are you exactly to make him fear you like this? Who exactly are you?”_

‘I will be honest with you Albus I no longer have any wish to be acquainted with Ms. Peverel.’ He said in a casual manner than suddenly he said in a whisper, ‘After all who would be mad enough to court the Mistress of Death?’

 

* * *

In the infirmary slowly Harlene came to consciousness. She felt like that someone had beaten her whole body with a beater’s bat, every part of her body hurt. 

She opened her eyes to find herself in the familiar Hogwarts infirmary. She sat up on the bed and looked around the infirmary. There didn’t seem to be anyone around. She got up from the bed, wincing as her whole body screamed in pain; she walked toward the window and looked outside through it. It was dark which meant it probably night.

_“What am I doing in the infirmary? What happened?”_

Harlene tried to remember what happened. At first she could only remember her dance with Tom on Slughorn’s party and then following Catalina outside of Slughorn’s office. After that everything was fuzzy.

_“What happened afterward? Why can’t I remember anything?”_

She tried to focus her mind but a headache was forming. She cringed her face in concentration and then suddenly everything came flashing back to her. How Catalina had declared that she was the one who had attacked her. How Lord McMillan and Grindelwald attacked her from behind. Her confrontation with Grindelwald and how she had blasted those men off. Lastly she remembered Tom face before blacking out.

‘Tom’ Harlene softly whispered as she remembered the concern in his eyes.

_“He was worried about me!”_

At the same time Harlene felt surprised and happy. Surprised because she never thought that Thomas Marvolo Riddle could ever felt worried about someone and happy because that said someone could be her.

_“He was worried about me, so…that means he cared, right?”_

With those thought she went to bed. After a while she drifted into sleep and dreamt about a certain icy blue eyed person.

.

Next time Harlene woke from the sleep it was already morning. She turned her head to find the one person she had been dreaming about all night sitting beside her bed, nose buried in a book.

A smile appeared on her face by seeing him. Tom still hadn’t noticed that she was awake. She smiled and spoke up, startling Tom, ‘You know, they say if you read books so closely you may lose your eyesight.’

‘I have been doing this since I had learned to read and surprisingly my eyesight is still on the mark.’ Tom replied with pride, then he became serious and said, ‘How are you feeling?’

Harlene sat up on the bed, ‘Over slept.’ She joked. ‘But I feel refreshed. So what happened?’

Tom frowned ‘What is the last thing you remember?’   

‘Um…I was attacked at Slughorn’s party and after that I woke up in a room I couldn’t recognize. There I met with Grindelwald and..and…’ She trailed off not sure how to tell him anymore.

Tom stared at her for a few moments before speaking up, ‘You don’t remember what happened afterwards?’

Harlene looked at him with wide eyes, for some reason she didn’t want to lie to him but she couldn’t just tell him that she was helped by Death; so she just shook her head.

‘Well we don’t really know what happened exactly, but I have a theory.’

‘Which is?’ Harlene asked, she was afraid he might figure out everything. The way his mind works she won’t be surprised that he guessed it all correctly.

‘When you met with Grindelwald you tried to fight him off, which resulted in you using your core magic, which we felt while we were scanning the Manor for you. You used too much of your core magic because of that you collapsed and went into magically induced coma to heal your magical core.’

Harlene nodded her head, absolutely not surprised that what Tom had said was very close to truth. She did use her core magic.

Core magic was something that children use when they do accidental magic before they turn eleven. Most of the time they only managed to scratch the surface of their core magic when they do accidental magic. For a full grown wizard to use such huge amount of core magic could take a toll on the body.

‘How long was I out?’ Harlene asked after a while, looking at Tom through her eyelashes.

‘It’s midday on 30th December now, so I would say approximately 56 hours.’ Tom said.

‘Which meant that I spend the whole vacation being knocked out. How exciting!’ Harlene exclaimed with a grimace.

Tom chuckled on that, ‘Don’t be so gloom, Ms. Peverel. The vacation hasn’t ended yet and I am sure Madam Winifred will let you go after a checkup.’

Harlene gave him a weak smile on that but she made no comments. She was busy feeling disappointed over the fact that he still called her with her surname.

* * *

As Tom had said Madam Winifred, the current school nurse released her as soon as she done with her checkup. After that they spend the whole day with each other roaming around the castle and taking a stroll by the Black Lake. Harlene found it surprising how much she enjoyed Tom’s company.

At the afternoon, while taking a stroll by the frozen Black Lake Harlene inquired, ‘So Riddle, what did you do while I was taking a power sleep in the infirmary? Surely you weren’t beside me all the time?’

‘Actually I did spend most of the time of the day beside you, reading a good book.’ Tom replied, after a while he added, ‘But I did took a pet project.’

‘Oh, what was it about?’ Harlene asked in curiosity.

‘I was practicing few spells I had invented before. I needed to try on objects which I finally found.’ Tom casually told her. ‘But unfortunately it didn’t work out so well.’

‘So sorry to hear that.’ Harlene said, not sure if she wanted to know what those spells were.

She was right to not wanting to know because she wouldn’t be too thrilled to know what his _‘pet project’_ was. Tom’s _‘pet project’_ was nothing other then torturing the McMillans for kidnapping Harlene. For the past three nights he used one of the secret passageways to get to Hogsmede and Apparate to the Riddle Manor where he had kept the McMillans captive, so he could torture them at his hearts content.

He had used all kind of torture spell he had learned over the years, even added a few of his own inventions. He had used his specialty crucio along with the blood boil curse, bone crashing curse, skin peeling curse and many more.

.

Harlene was feeling very conflicted about Tom, at the same time she was having fun with him and happy with all the attention he was giving her; but on the other hand she was horrified with herself for feeling so happy. She kept telling herself that he was Voldemort, the man who murdered her parents, who tried to kill her when she was only an infant and also had tried to kill her in every chance he got. The person who created seven horcruxes and killed so many innocent people in the process.

_“But he isn’t Voldemort. He is Tom, an orphaned boy. He is just like me.”_

_“But he has already killed at the age of fifteen. He has killed his muggle father and grandparents.”_

Just like this arguing with herself Harlene fell asleep on her bed at the end of the day.

.

The next day Harlene spent wandering around the castle, read books in the library but mostly did nothing. She had been arguing with herself what to do and not to do about Tom. She was still so vary conflicted. She had started to wonder why Death even brought her here in the first place.

She needed to know. She had to ask Death what it actually wanted. It couldn’t be because Death wanted Tom dead. She could not kill him, especially now. Now that she had…….

Her eyes widened as realization dawned onto her. She clapped her hands over her mouth as stared wide eyed into nothing. She couldn’t believe it. There was no way it could happen.

That’s how Tom found Harlene in that evening sitting on a couch in the common room, staring at the fireplace with her arms wrapped around her knees as her chin rested on it.

‘Good evening Ms. Peverel.’ Tom smiled at her while sitting down beside her on the couch. ‘What are you doing here sitting alone?’

Harlene looked up at him through her eyelashes, she could feel heat pooling on her cheeks. She dropped her eyes from his face and just shrugged, not giving any specific answer.

They sat there in silence for a while until Harlene broke the silence, ‘This year had been too much exciting for me. I have seen so many ups and down that I lost count of things. I don’t know what to think anymore.’

Tom watched her as she poured out her conflicts of her hearts in front of him. He tried to console her despite of the fact he had absolutely no idea how to do that, ‘Maybe next year would be better.’

‘Maybe but for that this needs to end. I really hope this year would just end.’ She said with a gloom expression. ‘Although it’s not like I ever had any decent New Year’s Eve. There was always something to spoil it.’

She remembered how she had spent the first ten New Years of her life being confined into the cupboard while the Dursleys celebrated it. After she got her Hogwarts letter it was no better either. First the mirror of Erised then on the next year the Basilsk, after that the dementors next the tri-wizard tournament, then the attack on Arthur Weasly. The sixth year was peaceful but not like she was actually in the mood to celebrate with all the attacks and next the year spend in a tent hunting down horcrux.

‘Although now that I think about it this year may actually be a lot better than all the sixteen years of my life.’ She said with a sad smile on her face. ‘It is actually a lot more…peaceful.’

‘I never had any special New Year’s Eve either. I must say, to you this is most peaceful and to me it was probably the best New Year’s Eve so far.’ Tom said with a soft smile. Although Harlene smiled at him in return, she couldn’t ignore the fact how her heart fluttered when he gave her that smile. They again fall into a comfortable silent just sitting there enjoying each other’s company.

They lost count of the time as they sat basking in each other’s company. Soon Harlene felt herself getting tired.

‘We should go to bed. It’s late.’ Harlene piped up drawing Tom’s attention. He had closed his eyes while his head rested on the back of the couch. When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw was the ceiling of the common room and little twigs forming just above their heads. His eyes widened when he realized what those twigs meant. It was mistletoe.

Usually Tom was not interested in any kind of physical attraction. He usually felt repulsed at the thought of someone touching him. To him no one was worthy enough to touch him. Mostly he didn’t feel sexually attracted toward any creatures not even any Veela could sway him.  But when he thought of touching or kissing Harlene he realized that the idea didn’t repulsed him at all, rather it actually enticed him.

‘Yes, we should.’ He said with an even voice and got up from the couch followed by Harlene. But before Harlene could bid him good night he interrupted her, ‘But before that.’

He turned around to fully face Harlen, who was looking at him with wide curious eyes. But before she could say anything he took a hold of her arm and pulled her towards him, crashing his lips to her in soft chaste kiss.

Harlene froze at that moment, she couldn’t believe what was happening. Her mind had went completely blank. She didn’t even realized when she had started to kiss him back. There was a distant sound of the bell indicating it was almost midnight.

Tom held her head with one hand while the other hand which was on her arm snaked around her waist. Harlene held onto his arms for leverage. When they broke apart after a while they were both panting for air. Harlene opened her eyes to look at Tom, she didn’t even realized she had closed them.

Tom wanted to continue the kiss but he knew now was not the time so he did the only thing he could thought of.

‘Happy New Year, Ms Peverel.’ He said with a soft smile and left Harlene standing there. When he entered his room he could still hear the faint sound of bell chime. It had yet to reach twelve bell.

He closed the door behind him and slumped up on the door as he recalled what he just did. He realized that he liked the feeling of Harlene’s soft lips against his own. He loved how she looked afterward, lips swollen and eyes a little hazy.

‘That was probably the best gift you could ever have.’ Tom said with chuckle.

As he heard the bell’s chime nearly got close to the end he wished, ‘Happy eighteenth, Tom.’

 

* * *

Harlene was shocked will be an understatement she was stunned. She couldn’t believe what just happened. Did Tom Marvolo Riddle just kissed her? And did she kiss him back?

She just didn’t understand what to think. She was so confused. Part of her was happy that Tom kissed her but part of her was repulsed. She didn’t know what she want anymore.

She came here to kill Tom, right? That was the purpose of her to come in the past. Wasn’t it? That’s what Death wanted, right? Then why were these things happening? Why was she falling for Tom?

WHY?

She needed answers and the only one who can give her answer was Death, so she called for it not even caring if anyone heard her.

‘DEATH!!!!’

There was no response, nothing apart from the cracking noise of the burning wood in the fireplace. She called again.

‘DEATH!!’

 **‘Did you call, my mistress?’** Harlene heard the familiar voice of Death spoke from behind her. How typical of it to always appear behind her. She turned around to face it.  Her face showed no emotion as she faced him. She didn’t even notice that she was no longer in the common room but in her inner world where there was nothing but pure white.

‘I am your mistress, aren’t I Death? That’s what you call me.’ Harlene spoke, her voice held no emotion.

**‘Yes, that is correct. The moment you collected all the Hallows, you accepted your position as the Mistress of Death.’**

‘Then tell me why did you bring me here? What was your purpose? I don’t want to hear any lies I want the truth. The absolute truth.’ Her eyes was tearing up in anger. She was so tired of having everyone lying to her. She thought at least Death would not lie to her as It was beyond these things.

**‘I brought you back so you could change the course of ti-’**

‘No, you sent me back in time so I could kill Voldemort _and_ change the course of time.’ Harlene said with defiance.

**‘I never sent you back so you could kill Voldemrot. After all Mistress YOU were the one who said you could never kill anyone. You wanted to get back in time so you could change the course of time and that was what I did.’**

‘No, no, no there has to be another reason for you sent me here. A reason that you are not telling me. I want you to tell me why bring me here if I said I didn’t want to kill anyone. Why?’

Death just stood there, staring at It’s fuming mistress, who seemed to be close to murdering It. If possible. Suddenly she snapped, after all she was not known for her grip on her temper.

‘TELL ME!!’

Death sighed and replied with the same monotone metallic voice, **‘You wished to change the course of time, so did I. In this world everyone has someone whose fate is entwined with another, as no one is created to live alone. Just as no one is made to live without love.’**

**Without love one tend to lose ones sanity and bring chaos in the world. Which is why everyone is send to this world with a partner who is equal and opposite, all they have to do is find that partner and live a better life.’**

 Harlene was getting more and more confused with each word Death spoke. One moment what Death said made sense but the next it didn’t.

‘That is all very nice but what does it have to do with me being back in the time?’ Harlene hissed at Death.

**‘Do you not understand, mistress? The prophecy, which made you and Tom Riddle mortal enemy was nothing but a way to bring you two together. It was never meant to make you both each other’s enemy. It was meant to bring the one thing that lacked in Riddle’s life the most. Love.’**

**‘You were a child that was meant for him so he could find the happiness he longed for. The anchor for this world he hoped to achieved. You, who were equal and opposite of him.’**

With every word Death spoke Harlene felt like her world was crashing down on her. Everything she thought for all this long was nothing but a lie. At that moment she no longer felt anger or anything, she was blank. Like every emotion was drained away from her.

Death could see that It’s mistress was in great distress with the information but It knew that if she wished to find her own happiness she needed to know everything and make a decision of her own.

**‘Tom Riddle was a boy that was born in an unusual situation. The old man Albus Dumbledore had thought that because of the fact that he was conceived in a marriage influenced by the love potion he can’t love. But that was not true. The fact that from the very beginning of his life he has been voided from love, he had never learned to love someone. Without someone teaching him, how could it be expected from him to love someone?’**

Death paused to let It’s words sink into Harlene’s mind who seemed to be think all this through.

**‘So, tell me mistress will you teach him the meaning to love someone and be loved by someone. The choice is yours. If you wish to stay, many things may change but if you wish to return back in your time I shall take you back, so you could finish the battle.’**

‘So was that it? You brought me back in time so I could teach Tom how to love.’ Harlene asked in aquite voice. ‘You made me think that I had fallen in love with him.’

**‘No mistress, I did not. I had no hand in your emotions toward him. What you feel toward him is something completely genuine. I would not have told you any of this if I had thought otherwise. I only said those because I knew you do love him. I brought you here and left you in your own accord. Because if you fall in love with him it should be by your own choice. No one can make you feel anything toward anyone if you don’t feel it by yourself. Not even I can make you fall in love in with him.’**

‘What would happen if I hadn’t fallen in love with him?’ Harlene said after a little while.

**‘Then I would have given you the choice between killing him before he made a horcrux or striping him from all his magic and leaving him as a squib.’ Death said without missing a beat.**

‘That would have been same as killing him!’ Haelene said in horror. She realized that the thought of Tom’s death pained her a lot.

_“I really have fallen in love with him. Haven’t I?”_

**‘So what should be your choice, my mistress? Do you wish to stay here or do you wish to return?’**

‘I think you know my answer.’ Harlene said with a smile. Now that she realized that she loved him it didn’t angered her anymore that Death played her.

 **‘Thank you my mistress.’** Death replied. **‘I hope you find the happiness you deserve.’**

Harlene just gave It a small smile. She turned around to leave this place but before that she needed to know one more thing.

‘What would happen if he…’ Harlene stopped, afraid to speak it out loud, ‘if he didn’t love me?’

 **‘If that do happens I shall do whatever you wish for me to do.’**  Death replied at once.

Harlene nodded at the answer, satisfied with it and left to return to her room.

 

* * *

Death watched as Harlene got back in her room and fell asleep. Death had watched over her from the moment she stepped into that timeline. Also when she was Harry…just Harry, an orphaned boy who lived with his uncle, aunt and cousin. The boy who turned the magical world upside down at the age of fifteen month. The boy who was supposed to be born as a girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was that,kitty cat. Hope you enjoyed it. A lot of questions has been answered but it seems like more questions has been asked. 
> 
> Dont worry EVERYTHING WILL BE REVELED, MY CHILD. hehehe!!!! 
> 
> guess where did I quote that from.


	15. Oh, Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This tittle is from a song that played in Supernatural season 6 while introducing Death. So it might be familiar to many. It is called "Oh Death" by Jen Titus.

Death had waited for the arrival of Its master from the moment the three hallows were created. He had given those gifts to those wizards as a test to find Its true master. Only the person who was pure in heart could become the Master of Death. A person who was selfless, pure, loves all creature and will not misuse this tittle ever.

For thousands of years Death had waited for the birth of that person. Finally after long years of waiting It had found the person who had the potential to become the Master of Death. It had found the baby which may grow up to be Its Master.

The baby was still in the baby’s mother’s womb when Death had found their soul, the purest of the purest soul. The soul was nothing like any other soul Death had come across before. Death knew in an instant that if anyone could become Death’s master it would be this child, but there was a looming darkness over the child that wished to destroy the life of Death’s mistress.

A prophecy about a child who could destroy the current Dark Lord Thomas Riddle, a man who had defiled his soul by splitting it into shards. A man who could build or destroy Death’s mistress’s happiness.

Death looked into the future and saw a horrifying future for Its master. Unfortunately if Death wished to have this child as Its mistress then Death needed to let the events occur the way they were supposed to. The only way for It to unite with It’s mistress was to let him have the horrible life that waited in front of her.

Before she took the title of Mistress of Death, Death couldn’t do much for her. Only after she collected all the hallows and went through the trials she will meet her Death would be able to help Its mistress, but for that Death would have to wait for seventeen years.

**_“I will do one thing for my mistress. To lessen the agony, I will do one thing.”_ **

Death unclenched It’s boney fingers and waved it toward the mother from the white world of life and death. A black mist formed around Its fingers which disappeared into the womb of the mother. The mist swirled around the baby, changing it, turning the little baby girl into a baby boy.

**_“Now, you will not have to face the agony of being a female. That was the only thing I can do, my mistress. You will face a lot of trouble in your future life, but the terrible things that could be done to you as a female, won’t be done to you now!.”_ **

The happy couple didn’t even felt anything as the changes took place. They went along with their life, waiting for the newest member of the family to arrive in the world. Lily and James Potter didn’t know what kind of fate lied ahead of their unborn child. At least the child wouldn’t have to go through the terrible experiences Death had seen her going through as a girl.

They didn’t even know what powerful child was growing in Lily’s womb. A child who will change the magical world. A child who will become the only Master of Death.

* * *

Harry James Potter was born on the 31st July just a few minutes before midnight. At birth his name was enrolled into Hogwarts, school for witchcraft and wizardry. A prophecy was told about a child born as the seven month dies; Death hoped that the prophecy will become false, so Death’s master could live a happy life but at the same time It knew that would not be the case. So Death waited, until the child became his master he would not interfere with fate. After that Death will make sure that Its master receives the happiness he deserved.

Fifteen months later on the night of Samhain, the terrible incident happened. The Potters were attacked at their own home, turning the child’s wheel of fate towards its destiny. The mother of Death’s master gave her life to protect him, for that Death shall reward her in after life. The mother’s sacrifice gave Death’s master the first initial power to become the Master of Death. She gave him the power of love and taught the meaning of sacrifice. Death could tell for sure now that the child will be the perfect Master of Death.

So on the night of Samhain Death wrote down the name of Its master.

Harlene Janis Potter.

 

* * *

Death watched over little Harry Potter as he went on with his life under the care of the Durseleys. The child faced so many hardships while he stayed in that awful place. Death almost shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if it had not changed its master’s gender.

Child abuse was one thing but if she was sexually abused, then the purity of Its mistress would have been lost. She would have lost her chance to become Death’s mistress and then Death would never have been able to help her achieve her happiness. It was better this way, that everyone thought her as a boy. So no one will be able take away Its mistresses innocence.

.

Death watched as little Harry Potter wandered around in Diagon Ally in awe with the half giant. The joy in those eyes warmed Death’s non-existent heart. Death watched how lovely Its master looked even though he was in those baggy clothes. His beautiful eyes were hidden behind those awful glasses.

**_“Forgive me, my master. You have to wear those glasses because your servant forced your body to change. Because of that you have gained your father’s awful eyesight. But fear not, my master. I shall fix this eyesight of yours when you take up the title you are meant to have. I shall fix everything.”_ **

Death clenched Its boney fingers as it made up Its mind. After they meet once again It shall do everything to make Its mistress happy.

* * *

Years passed by as Death watched over Its master. The little Harry Potter is no longer little. He was a fourteen years old teenager now. He had fought with a two-faced wizard, a giant basilisk and mastered the skill of casting the spell called Patronus. Death was so proud of its master. It really had gotten a very powerful master.

But as the year went on Death could see that Its master was getting closer to his destiny. Death watched as Its master passed through those tasks with so much bravery. Death watched as Its master even had a love interest. But it was wrong, that person was not the right person for Death’s master. How could she be? She wasn’t even half as powerful as he was. But if the master wanted her Death will not interfere. After all master’s happiness was all that mattered to Death.

As the third task approached Death became restless. Not even all those souls around the world that needed reaping could calm It down. How could It calm down after all Its master was heading toward the final shove towards his destiny? That night will change everything, the man who killed master’s parents will return, master will lose a friend. He will finally join the war that was thrust upon him.

Death watched with disgust as the awful man Tom Ri- no he was not Tom Riddle any more, he was Voldemort, came out of the cauldron. Death will not call this abomination Tom Riddle any more. Tom Riddle was a boy with a great potential but now he had become nothing but an abomination.

That was why Death valued love and sacrifices so much, as both are intervened with each other. If you have experienced love you could sacrifice anything to keep being loved and protect your loved ones. Tom Riddle was a boy that never felt love, he didn’t know what love was. After all he had never learned it, so he had never learned to sacrifice either.

Death always felt bad about this particular soul. It was born pure just as any other child but over the time it had gotten tainted to the extent that it couldn’t be cleansed. Or could it?

Maybe someone who knew how to cleanse his soul, someone who could teach him what he needed. Someone like the Master of Death.

**_“But my master would never help him. He killed his parents so why would he? If he was Tom Riddle maybe then he will help him. But I must wait for that.”_ **

And wait Death did, until Its master collected all the hallows. He was a seventeen year old man now. Yes, a man not a teenager, he had grown out of that phase the moment he came out of the graveyard three years ago.

* * *

Death watched as Its master walked toward his inevitable death or so he thought. Death could never take the life of its master. That was the privilege and the curse of being the Master of Death, he or she will not die, ever. The master will become immortal. Death knew that it could be very lonely to be the only immortal person in this universe. So that was why Dearth will not let Its master be lonely or sad for all eternity. He had been sad for too long already, now it was time to let Its master choose a partner for himself, who will spend eternity alongside him

But before that Its master must know of Death’s existent. Death will appear before him at the right moment which was so very close.

Death watched as Harry James Potter talked with the dead souls he had called fourth. They encouraged him to go forward and embrace Death like an old friend.

Death watched as Harry James Potter closed his eyes and the resurrection stone slipped out of his numb fingers as he stepped toward the clearing in the midst of the Forbidden Forest. The stone fell towards the ground but before it could touch the ground it disappeared, and appeared into the white world of life and death; the stone fell onto the outstretched boney hand of Death.

**“I shall take care of it, until you claim it back.”**

Death observed as Its master stood there, waiting for the killing curse. It hit him squarely on his chest sending him flying backward.

**“The final test is done. I congratulate you Harlene Janis Potter, for completing the trials of Death and becoming the one and only Mistress of Death. Now, it is time for us to meet and for me to return you in your true gender.**

**I shall change your gender back but not your memories; at first your memory may seem like someone else’s, but soon you will recognize them as yours. When you have your first cycle, all your memories as Harry James Potter will be modified to become the memories of Harlene Janis Potter and Harry James Potter will cease to exist. Then every person in your life shall remember her in place of him. This is the only thing I can do for you.”**

.

Death watched as Its master woke up in the world of life and death, which soon will be his inner world. It watched as he tried to comprehend where he was.

It heard the voice of Its master asking if this was heaven. That was when It decided to make Its presence known. Death spoke in Its grim voice,

**“Not really.”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that was a glimpse of Death's inner thought toward Its Mistress. I hope that explains all the confusions previous chapters had. 
> 
> It was mostly a filler chapter but a very necessary one. So hope that was enjoyable. 
> 
> We are almost close to the end. Few more chapters to go. bye for now.


	16. My songs know what you did in the dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The name of this chapter is from 'Light 'em up' by Fall Out Boys.

At first Harlene didn’t know how to act in front of Tom. Even though Death told her about why she was here she just couldn’t understand what to do.

_“I mean, how do you act in front of someone who have tried to kill you all your life and suddenly out of nowhere he just kissed you?”_

She laid in her bed for a long while staring up at the ceiling and thinking about what happened previous night. Every time she thought about the kiss she got more and more confused.

_“Why would he out of the blue kiss me like that?”_

‘Urggghhhh!!! I am so confused!’ Harlene whined to herself.

_“Oh! Screw it. I’ll just ask him why he did it.”_

With sheer determination Harlene got up from the bed and walked out of the dormitory into the common room. There she saw Tom sitting in his usual place, nose buried deep in a book.

_“Ok, let’s do this”_

She slowly walked toward the couch and sat on it, not sure what to say to him. Harlene stole a glance at him. He had a hand under his chin while the other held the book. Harlene couldn’t help but stare at his shaved jawline then to his lips. Lips that felt so great against her own.

_“WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING??!!!!”_

‘Good morning, Ms. Peverel.’

Harlene was startled out of her thoughts by Tom’s voice. She whipped her head to see him giving her a smile. An actual genuine smile. A smile that actually reached his eyes.

‘Morning.’ Harlene greeted with an awkward smile.

‘I didn’t see you at the breakfast table.’ Tom said after a few awkward silent moments.

‘I haven’t gone down to have breakfast yet. I am not really hungry.’ Harlene said without meeting his eyes. Tom nodded in response.

Silence fell between them again with Tom returning to his book and Harlene fidgeting where she sat. Tom could sense the nervousness emitting from her. He knew this was coming but it stung no less. He decided to just get over with it.

‘Ms. Peverel.’

‘Riddle.’ They both said at the same time. Both stared at each other in surprise.

‘You go first’

‘You should go first.’ Again they said at the same time. Tom sighed and turned toward Harlene completely; he gestured her to speak first.

‘Right, I will go first.’ Harlene said, but she stayed quite for a while trying to assess what to say to him. ‘Last night…you ..um…’

‘I won’t apologize for what I did.’ Tom cut her in mid-sentence realizing what she was trying to say. ‘I know I shouldn’t have kissed you like that. It was very ill-mannered of me.’ He sighed and added. ‘But I don’t regret it. I don’t regret kissing you and I will not apologize for it.’

Harlene stared at him in wide eyes, a warm feeling spread in her chest with every words he spoke. For some reason she could tell that he wasn’t lying to her, which made her happier. When she was able to gather her thought she spoke.

‘Um…no, that wasn’t what I wanted to say. I wanted to….I just wanted to know why you did it.’ Harlene said in hushed voice, staring at him with eyes full of curiosity.

Tom inhaled sharply, his eyes were slightly wide by the time she finished talking.

_“Why I did it? She is not mad about it! Does this mean she too…? No, I shouldn’t think about it now. But maybe later.”_

‘Why do you think I did it?’ Tom asked her, eyes never leaving her face.

‘I-I don’t know that’s why I….’ Harlene stuttered out.

‘I kissed you..’ Tom cut her again as he got frustrated with her and shot up from the couch. His back towards her ‘..because I wanted to. I wanted to kiss you until you can’t breath and still go on. I don’t know what it is I feel but I know this that I only feel it when you are around.’

‘Every time I touch your hand or talk to you or even look at you I feel like..’ Tom whirled around on his heel and looked at her. ‘I feel like that there is no one else exist in this world other then you. It feels like nothing else matters.’

‘You might think of it as some kind of elaborate plan to keep you but it really isn’t.’ Tom sighed. He was getting angry and more frustrated in passing seconds. For the first time in his life he didn’t know what to say. But he spoke again in a quitter voice than before. ‘No plans ever works with you. So don’t worry I didn’t do it with any malice thought. I just….I just wanted to kiss you. It won’t happen again.’

Tom was breathing heavily by the time he finished his rant. His face had become slight pink from anger and frustration.

Harlene stared at him in wide eyes. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. When she asked Tom about the kiss she didn’t even know what she expected to hear. But listening to him made her realize that maybe just maybe he kissed her because he _liked_ her. That rant did sound like a confession.

She felt really happy to hear those words coming out his mouth, but when he said that he won’t do it again something inside of her just snapped.

_“No, no, no, don’t say that. I don’t want that.”_

She needed to say something to make him understand that she wasn’t mad at him. She needed to make him realize that she just wanted to know what his thoughts toward her was. She needed to tell him about how she felt about him.

So she did the only thing that could him understand. She got up from the couch, walked toward him and pulled him down for a kiss. She poured every feelings of her in the kiss.

At first Tom went absolutely rigid but soon he responded with equal if not more, eagerness. He snaked an arm around her waist and held her head with another, pulling her closer to him. She felt herself melt into the kiss.

At first it was sweet and gentle but soon it turned hot and rough. Tom licked her lips for entrance which she gladly gave him. Their tongue clashed together, fighting for dominance. Harlene fought for dominance but soon gave up and let Tom sweep his tongue inside her mouth. She moaned into the kiss as his tongue tasted every corner of her mouth.

Her moans send jolts of electricity through Tom’s body and heat pool in his lower half. If they didn’t parted soon he will probably go all the way right here and then. Showing great self-restrain Tom pulled away from the kiss but touched their foreheads together. Both of them were breathing hard because of all the kissing.

Harlene was the first one to speak, ‘Does this mean we can call each other by our first names?’ Tom chuckled at her question, he definitely was not expecting this question.

‘Yes, it does. But I would like it if you call me Marvolo rather than Tom.’ He said by pulling away a little and looking into her eyes.

‘But I like Tom more than Marvolo. Marvolo sounds like someone who abuses his family.’ Which was true and Harlene knew it. That was why she didn’t want to call him that. She didn’t want to put him in the same category as his grandfather.

**He was not his grandfather _._**

Tom’s eyes widened with her statement. He wanted to have a unique name, he wanted her to think he was unique that was why he asked her to call him by his middle name. But he didn’t even realized that he was connecting himself to that man.

‘You are right, it does sound like that. You can call me whatever you like.’ Tom said to her with a smile, but to him the smile he received from her was probably the most radiating he had ever seen.

.

.

.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, was first in his life didn’t know what to say. He had called Harlene Peverel in his office to talk about her kidnapping but now that she was sitting in front of her he didn’t know how to start the conversation.

‘How are you feeling Ms. Peverel?’ Dumbledore asked in his grandfatherly voice. It was soothing but Harlene could see the twinkling missing from his eyes.

_“Something’s bothering him. I wonder what it could be.”_

‘I am feeling better.’ Harlene replied politely. At first when she arrived in this time she still had some respect for her former mentor but soon she lost it. Especially after realizing that Tom could have been prevented from turning into, _well_ Voldemort.

‘I am glad you have recovered well. The incident must have been traumatic.’ Dumbledore said in a soothing voice.

‘I have seen a war Professor. Compare to that it was nothing.’ Harlene said passively.

‘That is very true. I know you have said that you don’t remember much but it would be better if you try to remember. After all some mysteries are better solved.’ Dumbledore said in serious tone.

_“So he knows.”_

‘Let’s not kick around the bushes, Professor. You and I both know what you actually want to know.’ Harlene said with no amount of humour in her voice.

‘And what would that be?’ Dumbledore asked in a curious voice.

‘Whether I am the Master of Death or not.’ Harlene said in a passive voice.

The temperature of the room dropped few degrees after that statement. Dumbledore stared at her in shock. He immediately controlled himself and spoke,

‘So you are familiar with that term?’

‘I am. After I collected all the Hallows Death came to me and told me of my title.’ Harlene blatantly told him. She didn’t care if he knew because if he wanted to do anything she could very well stop it. He could not hurt her or use her anyway.

‘But how is that possible? Grindelwald still has the Elder wand and without it you can’t complete the set.’ Dumbledore said to her.

‘I can if I do it in the future.’ Harlene said slowly, her gaze was lowered on the ground. She had decided she would tell him – not everything – but just enough to sedate his curiosity.

‘Future? So you are from the future?’ Dumbledore asked her, the twinkling in his eyes are back again.

‘Yes, I am. I collected all the hallows from almost 53 years from today. At first I didn’t think that Death really will appear before me and congratulate me for collecting all the hallows but It did. It started calling me its Mistress from then on.’ Harlene said as if she was talking about the weather.

‘So Death really does exist?’ Dumbledore asked with a dumbfounded expression.

‘Death is the most real thing in this world. Anything other than it is just _inconsistent_.’ Harlene looked up at him and said.

‘I see.’ Dumbledore replied in a hushed voice. ‘But then why are you here? In the past?’

‘I have some work to do. A mission you can say to complete. If I don’t there will be catastrophe.’ Harlene said tilting her head.

‘Does this mean you will help us in the war against Grindelwald?’ Dumbledore asked at once. He could very well understand that it was better to be straightforward with her.

‘Actually, no. This is not my war to fight. I am here for my own reason only. I will not take part in YOUR fight, Professor. That is yours and yours only.’ Harlene said coldly.

‘Then why are you here? What is this mission of yours if it isn’t the war?’ Dumbledore asked.

‘THAT is none of your business.’ Harlene stated firmly. Her face held a hard look. ‘Pardon me for my manners, but I really do have to tell you to keep away from my business and take care of your own. What I do is absolutely my business, it has nothing to do with you or Grindelwald.’

Harlene stood up from the chair, ‘If that is all Professor then I will be by my way.’ She turned around to leave the room but before she slipped out of the door Dumbledore heard her saying, ‘It is not always my job to fight to protect this world. Please learn to fight your own war.’

With that she left the room with a stunned Dumbledore behind.

* * *

The Christmas break ended and classes started, Hogwarts became full of students again. Everyone returned to their old routine works, everyone except two person. Most of the people didn’t even notice the changes in them other than who were close to them or who knew them enough to detect it.

The changes were not something huge, like kissing in the middle of the corridor or something but rather small like sitting together at the Great Hall to eat.

Tom and Harlene was anything but public about their new found closeness. It was mostly because of the fact Tom still wasn’t sure if he wanted to let the world know about his yet, _for some reason_. Also because Harlene didn’t like public performance of her private life. For some reason she wasn’t much of a fan of the media.

_“I wonder why that is!”_

 But that didn’t mean that they weren’t doing anything in private. Behind the closed door of the common room or the Room of Requirement they could be found together – not kissing or doing anything, mind you – they could be seen sitting in the same couch side by side, Tom reading a book while his hand was on Harlene’s waist as she did her homework.

Sometimes Tom could be seen helping her with her homework’s. Some part of them will always be touching, whether it was their hand or shoulder or Tom’s hand resting on Harlene’s waist or shoulder.

Harlene seemed to be content with these small gestures from him. She didn’t expect him to be lovey-dovey with her or exchange shy glances with him either. She was kind of happy with these possessive gestures from him. They were unexpected but not unwanted.

And she didn’t care what anyone else thought about it. For the first time in a long while she was actually happy.

But she should have known that nothing was constant with her, especially happiness.

* * *

It was almost end of January, Harlene was sitting in her room with her wand in her hand. She examined the wand closely.

When she was fighting with Grindelald she could feel changes in her wand. After waking up she realized how much the wand had changed. Still she haven’t been able to fully except the change in it. It felt so surreal.

The wand in her hand had changed drastically. It was neither the holly and phoenix feather wand, nor the Elder wood and Threstal hair Death stick. It was both and none at the same time.

The two wand had merged with each other. The core of the two wand had braided with each other, like two strands of hair; one strand fiery red of the phoenix feather and the other strand darker than black threstal hair. The woods of both wands had also merged with each other. The half of the wand was now made with holly wood and other half with elder wood.

The threstal hair core symbolized death and the phoenix feather core symbolized resurrection.

_“Just like the story of my life. Very ironic, Death!”_

.

Later at night Harlene looked for her favourite sociopath, whom she found inside the R.O.R. but wished immediately that she didn’t.

Inside the room Tom was sitting in a comfortable couch engrossed in a book beside him on a table was his diary. From the doorway Harlene saw the tittle of the book, Horcrux: the darkest magic.

Harlene went rigid where she stood, her mind went on an override. She was horrified at the revelation that Tom still wanted immortality.

_“No, no, no, no, no!!! It can’t be. He can’t walk on the same path again. I won’t let him.”_

Instinctually, her magic lashed out and plucked the book out of Tom’s grasp, making him jump on his feet with wand raised. Tom glared at her where she stood with the book in her hand, his eyes burning with rage. But he controlled it and hissed at Harlene,

‘WHAT is the meaning of this?’

‘You don’t want to walk this road, Tom. It will destroy you.’ Harlene almost pleaded to him.

‘What are you talking about, Harlene?’ Tom gritted between his teeth. He lowered his wand but his eyes still held the anger he was feeling.

‘Creating Horcrux will drive you to your insanity.’ Harlene tried to reason with him.

‘And how do YOU know that?’ Tom said in a suspicious voice. Harlene was taken aback with that question. How would she answer that question?

‘I..uh I just do.’ She tried to side step but she forgot this was Tom Marvolo Riddle whom she was talking to, he wouldn’t let it go.

‘Really?’ Tom asked in a sarcastic voice. ‘And I am sure your mentor had taught you that, right?’

‘Look, what does it matter how I know? What matters is that splitting your souls not just once but seven times will drive you insane.’

Tom narrowed his eyes at her, his grip on his wand tighten. He spoke in a low voice, ‘How do you know that I want to create seven Horcruxs?’

Harlene caught her slip up immediately but it was too late, there was no turning back.

‘Tom’ she whispered. Her eyes filled with desperation but Tom could hardly care about that. She knew she was fighting a lost battle, but she didn’t know what else she could do. ‘Tom, trust me if you create those Horcrux everything will be lost.’ Harlene tried make reason with him one more time.

‘Trust you? How can I trust you when you don’t even trust me?’ Tom hissed at her.

‘What?’ Harlene was startled at that. ‘I do trust you.’

‘Stop lying.’ Tom gritted between his teeth. ‘You wouldn’t even tell me who you are. Even when I have been nothing but honest with you. You lied to me when I asked you about the kidnapping. So how do possibly expect me to trust you?’

‘I have reasons for not telling.’ Harlene tried to coax him.

‘I am sure you do. After all how can you possibly trust a dark wizard, right?’ Tom said in a sarcastic voice.

‘No that is not the –’ Harlene tried to say but Tom cut her in mid-sentence.

‘Please, don’t bother. I thought we had something but now I know that was only me. Good day to Ms. Peverel.’ With that he stalked passed her to the door.

Harlene felt numb at his last statement. She felt as if someone had poured ice cold water on her heart. She couldn’t move while the world burned around her. In that very moment she made up her mind.

_“No more secrets. I don’t care what happens to me afterward but I can’t do it anymore.”_

‘STOP!!’ Harlene screamed out before Tom could leave the room, making him halt on his way.

‘I will show you. I will show you everything.’ Harlene almost whispered. Tom turned around to face her but she had her back turned toward him.

‘Can I please have a pensive?’ Tom realized she was talking to the room not with him. Tom slowly walked back toward her with a deep frown on his face. He saw the stone basin materialized in front of Harlene. He stopped at the other side of the basin and looked at her.

He was a little taken aback by the facial expression of her. Her face held a sad look like she had lost all will to fight, like she had given up.

_“What could possibly make her react like that?”_

Harlene pressed her wand on her temple and thought hard about the memories she wish to show him and pulled them out of her mind.

Tom watched like a hawk as she pulled out a long thread of memory out of her mind and dropped it in the pensive.

Tom stared at the swirling for a long moment and then looked up at her. She was staring right at him.

‘I will wait for you here.’ She said in calm voice. ‘Don’t worry I won’t attack you while you are in there.’

Tom waited another long minute and then he made up his mind and dived into the memory.

.

He felt himself falling, soon he landed on his feet. He looked around and found himself what seemed to be a living room of a house. He turned around to see a man with messy black hair holding a child. The child had messy black hair and the greenest eyes ever. Eyes Tom would recognize anywhere.

_“Harlene!”_

He saw a red headed woman came and take the child from the man’s hand and head up the stairs. Suddenly there was a huge noise that came from front door. Tom saw the black haired man screamed at the woman.

_‘Lily, run. Take Harlene and run. He is here. Lord Voldemort is here.’_

Tom stopped in his track when he heard that. Did he hear that correct? Did he say Voldemort? But how can it be that name was HIS allies. Unless…..

Tom watched as the hooded figure killed the man and went upstairs after the woman and Harlene. The hooded person killed the woman and raised his wand at the child.

_“No.!”_

Tom watched in horror as Voldemort shot the killing curse at the baby. But something very unusual happened, the curse didn’t hit her rather it bounced off and hit him instead, blowing up half of the house.

The scene dissolved and another memory resolved, but Tim almost missed it as he was too shocked to process his surroundings.

This time he was standing inside a chamber with a young Harlene, she had glasses on her eyes and a wizard with a snake-like face on the back of his head.

The snake like face was Lord Voldemort according to the wizard. Tom watched as the wizard tried to hurt Harlene but instead he himself got burnt to ashes. He saw as a black mist emerged from the ashes and went through her.

As she fell down on the stairs the scene changed again, this time he was standing inside a very familiar looking chamber, The Chamber of Secrets.

Harlene was standing a few feet away from where he stood. She looked a bit older, maybe twelve. She was staring up at _him._ In front of her stood him or at least someone who looked like him.

The other him turned around and wrote his full name in the air and flicked the wand. The letter reassembled itself stating “I Am Voldemort”.

He glanced on the unconscious red headed girl and realized that she was holding a black diary, _his_ diary.

_“So, that’s what this is. He is my..”_

But he couldn’t finish his thought as the other Tom unleashed the basilisk on his Harlene. The basilisk chased her around the chamber, the pipes and finally cornered her on the Slytherin’s statue. She had found herself a sword and stabbed the snake with it but in the process she also got bitten by it.

Tom watched as Harlene limped her way to the girl and stabbed the diary making the other Tom disappear. Tom realized that he didn’t feel any kind of anger at the fact that she just destroyed one of his souls.

He watched as she almost die because of the basilisk venom but rescued at the last moment by the phoenix.

The scene changed again, this time they were standing what seemed to be a graveyard. Tom recognized the place immediately, Little Hangleton.

He could see her tied to a tomb, she looks older probably thirteen or fourteen. She looks worn out and battered like she had been through a battle. She was staring at a small rat like man dropping what seemed to be a child inside a huge cauldron. Suddenly the cauldron exploded and the gruesome looking man emerged out of it. He looked absolutely like a snake with pale skin and ruby red eyes. 

It didn’t take long for Tom to realize who it was. He watched as his future self – yes, he understood that what he was watching will happen in the future or already happened – called his followers and tortured Harlene. Harlene the brash Gryffindor she was – yes, he had also realized that she was a Gryffindor – fought against the man.

Once again he watched the priori incantatum take place. This time from Voldemort’s wand tip came out the people he murdered; a young boy probably a year or two older than Harlene, a middle aged muggle and then came out her mother and father. Together they helped her escape from the graveyard.

The scene changed this time she was sitting in front of Dumbledore in what seemed to be the Headmaster’s office. She looked dejected, like she had just lost a loved one. She asked him,

‘Why? Why does he always want to kill me?’ Her voice was moist with tears. She had been crying. She also looked older, her hair was longer. She still had that awful glasses on which hid her stunning eyes.

‘Let me show you.’ Dumbledore said in his grandfatherly voice, but even he was lacking his usual twinkling in his eyes. Together they stepped inside the pensive and saw a memory of Dumbledore himself with a woman with frizzy hair and crazy look.

It was the things that she said that caught Tom’s attention. It was a prophecy about the dark Lord and a saviour.

_"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...."_

_“It didn’t say anything about her then why would he come after her”_. Tom thought as he didn’t understand the reason. “ _He couldn’t have just marched to her house and tried to kill her because of that stupid prophecy. Could he?”_

He saw as Dumbldore explained to her why Voldemort went after her. But he could hardly understand most of that as he was too shocked about the situation.

_“Did I really lose my sanity?”_

Next time scene changed she was staying in a tent with her two best friends. From their conversation he understood that they were hunting his Horcrux’s; Voldemort had taken over the magical England and creating havoc. He watched as she got captured by his followers and then get tortured by a woman named Bellatrix. He wanted to kill her there and then.

The scene dissolved again this time he was standing outside of the Quidditch shed. Harlene and two friends was crouching behind him under a window. Through the window he saw Voldemort killed a man without any proper cause and then enhanced his voice so he could be heard all through the area.

Voldemort taunted Harlene saying she was weak because she hid behind wizards and witches. Tom’s anger flared at that statement, Harlene had done no such thing, and she had always faced him with bravery. How dare he say such thing! He gave her till mid-night to surrender. 

Tom watched as she eyed the flask of memory in her hand. He watched as she cried all by herself at the death of a man named Remus and another red headed man named Fred.

.

Suddenly Tom felt himself flying back up to the reality. When he emerged from the pensive he didn’t know what to think anymore. He felt so numb.

Tom stood there motionless like he had forgotten how to move or do anything. Harlene looked at his face with a pained expression, waiting for any kind reaction but he found none.

_“It’s all over I guess.”_

Without uttering any word she turned away from him, but paused at the door and said over her shoulder,

‘I hope this time you can finally kill me.’

And she left without even waiting to see any kind of reaction from him. If she did she would have seen how his eyes widened at that last statement.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dunnnnn


End file.
